Books (Science Fiction--Armageddon 2419 A.D.--Philip Francis Nowlan--Amazing Stories--August 1928--Archive.org).pdf

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.Jlucjiist

25 C



By

Philip

Trancis

*JVpwlan

Foreword

|LSEWHERE

I

have

set

clown,

for what-

ever interest

they

have

in this,

the 25th

Century,

my

personal recollections

of the

20th

Century.

Now

it

occurs

to

me

that

my

memoirs

of

the

25th

Century may have

an equal interest

500 years

from

now

—

particularly

in

view

of that unique

per-

spective

from

which

I

have

seen the

25th Century,

entering it

as

I did,

in

one leap across

a gap of

492

years.

This

statement

requires

elucidation.

There

are still

many in

the world who

are

not

familiar with

my

unique

experience.

Five

centuries

from

now

there

may

be

many

more,

especially

if

civilization

is

fated

to endure

any worse convulsions

than those

which

have

occurred

between

1975

A.D. and the

present

time.

I

should state .there

fore,

that I, Anthony Rogers,

am,

World

domination

was in

the hands

of

M

and the center

of world

power

lay

in inla

with Americans

one of the

few

races

of

ma

subdued

—and

it

must

be admitted in

fairn

truth,

not

worth the

trouble of

subduing

in t

the Han Airlords

who ruled Nortb

America

tributaries

of

the

Most

Magnificent.

For they

needed

not the forests

in which

t

cans

lived,

nor the resources

of the vast

these

forests covered.

With the perfection

they

had reduced

the

synthetic production

o

ties

and luxuries, their

remarkable

develo

scientific

processes

and mechanical

accompli

work,

they

had no

economic

need for the fo

no economic

desire

for the

enslaved

labor

of

They

had all

they needed

for their mag

luxurious

and

degraded

scheme

of

civilizat

the

walls

of the

fifteen

cities of

sparkling'





424

AMAZING

STORIES

been recorded already

by better historians than I am.

Instead

I

shall

confine myself

largely to

the part

I was

fortunate

enough

to

play

in this struggle

and

in the

events

leading

up

to

it.

It

all

resulted

from

my interest

in

radioactive

gases.

During the latter part of 1927 my company, the Ameri-

can

Radioactive Gas

Corporation, had

Iieen keeping

me

busy investigating

reports of

unusual phenomena

observed in certain abandoned

coal mines

near

the

Wyoming

Valley,

in Pennsylvania.

With two

assistants

and

a complete equipment of

scientific instruments, I began the exploration

of a

deserted working in

a

mountainous district,

where

sev-

eral weeks before,

a

number

of mining

engineers had

reported

traces

of carnotite* and

what

they believed

to

be

radioactive

gases.

Their

report

was not

without

foundation,

it

was

apparent

from the outset,

for

in our

examination of

the

upper levels of the

mine,

our

instru-

ments

indicated

a

vigorous

radioactivity.

On

the

morning

of December 15th, we descended to

one of the lowest

levels.

To

our surprise,

we found

no water there.

Obviously

it had drained

off

through

some break in

the

strata.

We

noticed

too that the

rock

in the

side

walls

of

the shaft

was soft,

evi-

dently

due

to the

radioactivity,

and

pieces crumbled

CHAPTER

1

Floating

Men

MY

first

glimpse

of

a

human

being of

Century was obtained through

a

p

woodland where

the

trees

were

thi

tered,

with

a

dense forest

beyond.

I

had

been

wandering

along aimlessly,

and

h

musing

over my strange fate,

when

I noticed

that cautiously

backed out

of

the dense grow

the

glade.

I

was about to call out joyfully,

was something

furtive

about the figure that

p

me. The boy's

attention

(

for

it seemed

to be

fifteen

or

sixteen)

was centered

tensely

on t

growth

of

trees

from which he had

just

emerg

He

was

clad in rather

tight-fitting

garments

of

green,

and wore

a

helmet-like

cap of the sa

High

around

his

waist he wore

a

broad thick be

bulked

up

in

the

back

across the shoulders,

in

thing

of the proportions

of a knapsack.

As I

was taking in

these

details,

there

cam

flash

and

heavy

detonation, like that

of

a hand

not

far

to the

left

of him. He threw

up an

staggered a bit

in

a queer,

gliding

way

; then

ered himself

and slipped

cautiously

away from



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419 A.D.

ear us,

the suppressed

conversation

of

his pursuers,

There

followed

a

series of explosions round about

,

hut

none

very close.

They

evidently

had not spot-

ted our hiding

place,

and

were

firing

at

random.

I

waited

tensely,

balancing

the

gun

in

my

hand,

to

'accustom myself

to

its weight and probable

throw.

Then I

saw a

movement in the green

foliage

of

a

tree

not

far

away, and

the

head and face of a

man

appeared.

:'Like

my

companion,

he

was

clad

entirely

in

green,

.which

made

his figure

difficult

to

distinguish.

But his

face

could be

seen

clearly. It was an

evil

face,

and had

murtler in it.

That

decided

me.

I

raised

the

gun

and

fired.

My

aim

was bad, for

there

was

Ho

kick in the

gun,

as I

had

expected, and

I hit the

trunk

of the

tree

several

feet below

him. It

blew

him

from his perch like a

crumpled

bit

of paper, and he floated

down to the

ground,

like

some

limp, dead

thing,

gently

lowered by

an invisible hand. The

tree, its trunk blown

apart

by

the

explosion,

crashed down.

There

followed

another

series

of

explosions

around

us.

These

guns

we

were using made no

sound

in the

firing, and my

opponents

were evidently as much at sea

as

to. my position as I

was

to

theirs.

So

I

made no

attempt

to

reply to their fire,

contenting

myself

with

And

lay

in

the belt.

The thing

was

some

sort of an

belt that almost balanced the weight

of th

thereby tremendously

multiplying

the

propulsi

of the

leg muscles,

and the

lifting

power of

When

the

girl

came

to,

she

regarded

me

as

as I

did her, and promptly began to quiz me.

cent and

intonation puzzled

me

a

lot,

but nev

we

were able to

understand

each

other fairly

cept for certain

words

and

phrases.

I

explai

had happened while

she

lay

unconscious,

thanked

me

simply for saving her life.

You

are

a

strange exchange, she said,

clothing

quizzically.

Evidently

she

found

it m

voking

by

contrast

with

her

own

neatly effic

Don't

you understand

what

I mean by

'e

I

mean ah—let

me

see—a stranger, somebo

some

other gang.

What

gang do you

belong

t

pronounced

it gan,

with only a suspicion o

sound.)

I

laughed. I'm

not

a

gangster,

I

said.

evidently

did

not

understand this

word. I

long

to any gang, I

explained, and never

d

everybody belong to

a

gang nowadays

?

Naturally, she

said,

frowning.

If

you

long

to

a

gang, where

and

how

do

you live ?

W

not found and joined

do



426

AMAZING

STORIES

though they

were beaten,

for the

war was

a

terrific

one,

and left

America,

like

themselves,

gasping, bleeding

and

disorganized,

with only

the hollow

shell of

a victory.

This

opportunity

had been seized

by

the

Russian

Soviets,

who

had

made

a

coalition

with

the Chinese,

to

sweep over

all

Europe

and

reduce it

to a state

of

chaos.

America, industrially

geared

to

world

production

and

the world

trade, collapsed

economically,

and

there

en-

sued a long period

of

stagnation

and desperate

at-

tempts

at

economic reconstruction.

But

it

was im-

possible

to

stave

off war

with the

Mongolians, who 'by

now had

subjugated

the

Russians, and

were

aiming

at

a world

empire.

In about

2109,

it seems,

the

conflict

was

finally

pre-

cipitated. The

Mongolians,

with

overwhelming

fleets

of

great

airships,

and a science

that

far outstripped

that

of

crippled

America, swept in over

the

Pacific and

At-

lantic

Coasts, and

down

from

Canada,

annihilating

American aircraft, armies

and

cities

with their terrific

disintegrator rays.

These rays were

projected

from

a

machine not unlike

a

searchlight in

appearance,

the

reflector

of

which, however,

was not material

substance,

but

a

complicated

balance of

interacting electronic

forces.

This

resulted

in

a

terribly destructive beam.

Un-

der its

influence,

material substance

melted into

no-

thingness

;

i. e., into

electronic

vibrations.

It

destroyed

tors of

the

Hans.

They

tapped

the

radio commu

lines

of the Hans, with crude

instruments

at fir

ones later on. They

bent every

effort

towar

development

of

science. For

many

generati

labored

as

unseen,

unknown

scholars

of

the

Ha

ing

up their

knowledge

piecemeal,

as

fast

as

t

able

to.

During

the

earlier

part

of this period, th

many

deadly

wars

fought

between the

variou

and occasional

courageous

but

childishly

futil

upon

the Hans,

followed

by

terribly punitive

But

as knowledge

progressed, the

sense

of A

brotherhood

redeveloped.

Reciprocal

arra

were

made

among

the gangs

over

constantly i

areas.

Trade developed

to a certain extent,

as

one gang

and another.

But

the

interchange

o

edge became

more important

than

that

of g

skill

in

the handling

of synthetic processes

de

Within the

gang,

an economy was

developed

a

compromise

between individual

liberty and

a

socialism.

The right of

private

property

was

practically

to

personal

possessions,

but

priva

ileges were

many,

and

sacredly

regarded.

Sti

to achievement

lay chiefly in

the winning

of

kinds of leadership

and

prerogatives,

and o

very

limited

degree

in

the

hope of owning

anyt



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.

On

the

left

of t&e

illni

Han girl, and an the

American

girl,

who, life

race,

Is

equipped

with

Wilma

told

me

she

was a

member of the

Wyoming

Gang,

which

claimed the entire

Wyoming

Valley

as its

territory,

under

the

leadership of

Boss- Hart.

Her

mother and

father were

dead,

and

she

was unmarried,

so

she

was

not

a

family

member.

She

lived in

a

little group

of tents known as

Camp 17,

tinder

a

woman

Camp

Boss, with seven other girls.

Her

duties

alternated

between military or police

scouting

and

factory work.

For

the

two-week

period which

would end

the

next day, she

had

been on

air

patrol.

This

did

not

mean,

as

I

first

imagined,

that

she

was

flying,

but

rather

that

she

was on the

lookout

for Han ships over

this

outlying

section of the Wyoming

territory,

and had

spent most of her

time perched

in the

tree

tops scanning

the skies. Had

she seen

one

she

would

have

fired

a drop flare

several

miles

off

to

one side, which would

ignite

when

it

was

floating

vertically

toward

the

earth,

so that

the direction or point

from

which

it

had

been fired

might

not

be

guessed

by the airship and bring

a

blasting

play of the disintegrator

ray

her

They were very useful in

the

forest.

They

w

strapped

high

under the arms, containing a

of

inertron adjusted

to

the wearer's

weight

poses. In

effect

they made a

man

weigh as l

desired;

two pounds

if

he

liked,

Floaters

are

a

later development

of

ju

rocket

motors

encased

in inertron blocks and

to

the

back in

such

a

way

that

the wearer flo

drifting,

facing slightly

do

With

his

motor

in

operation,

like

a diver, head-

foremost,

co

his

direction

by twisting his

by

movements

of

his

outstret

and hands.

Ballast

weights

the front

of the belt adjust we

lift.

Some men

prefer a

fe

of weight in -floating, using

motor

thrust

to

overcome

this

prefer

a

buoyance balance

ounces.

The inadvertent dro

weight

is not

a

serious

matt

motor

thrust

always can be

iion. is a

descend. But as an extra pr

ii

$

h«

in case the motor should fail

taertron

reason, there are

built into ev

number of section



AMAZING

STORIES

with

my

weight

added

to

hers,

we

floated

down easily.

CHAPTER III

Life in the 25th Century

WE

were delayed

in

starting for

quite a while

since

I

had

to

acquire

a

few

crude ideas about

the

technique

of using these belts,

I

had

been

sitting

down, for instance, with

the belt

strapped about

me,

enjoying

an

ease similar

to

that

of

a

comfortable

armchair;

when

I

stood up

with a natural exertion

of

muscular effort,

I shot ten

feet

into the air,

with a

wild

instinctive

thrashing of arms

and legs

that amused

Wilma

greatly.

But

after

some

practice, I

began

to get the

trick of

gauging

muscular effort

to

a

minimum

of

vertical and

a

maximum

of

horizontal. The

correct form,

I

found,

was

in

a

measure

comparable

to

that

of

skating. I

found,

also,

that in

forest

work

particularly

the

arms

and

hands

could be used

to

great advantage

in

swinging

along from branch

to

branch, so prolonging leaps

al-

most indefinitely

at

times.

In

going

up

the

side

of the

mountain,

I

found

that

my 20th

Century

muscles did have

an

advantage, in

spite of lack of skill

with

the

belt, and

since the slopes

were very

sharp,

and most

of our leaps

were upward,

I could have

distanced

Wilma easily.

But when

we

other

side

of the

mountain.

So

she closed do

of the

phone and handed

it

back

to Alan,

wh

relieved to see us departing over

the tree

t

direction

of

the

camps.

We had covered perhaps

ten miles, in

seemed

to me

a

surprisingly

easy

fashion,

wh

explained, that from

here on we would

hav

to

the

ground.

We

were

nearing

the camps,

and

there was always the possibility

that s

Han scoutship, invisible

high in

the

sky, mi

sight of us

through

a projectoscope

and

thu

general location

of

the

camps.

Wilma took

me

to the

Scout

office,

which

be

a

small

building

of irregular

shape,

conf

the

trees around

it,

and

substantially const

green

sheet

like

material.

I

was received

by

the

assistant Scout

Boss

ported

my arrival at once

to the

historical o

to

officials

he called the

Psycho

Boss

and

th

Boss,

who came in

a

few minutes

later.

Th

of

all three men was

at

first polite but skept

Wilma's

ardent

advocacy

seemed

to

amu

secretly.

For

the

next

two

hours

I

talked,

expla

answered questions.

I

had

to

explain,

in

d

manner

of my life

in the

20th Century

and m



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.

now

that you're here,

and can't go

back to

your own

century,

so to speak, what do

you want to

do?

You're

welcome to

become one of

us.

Or perhaps

you'd

just

like

to

visit with

us for

a

while,

and then look

around

among the other

gangs.

Maybe

you'd

like

some of the

others better. Don't make

up

your

mind

now.

We'll

put

you down as

an exchange for a

while.

Let's

see.

You

and

Bill Hearn

ought

to get

along

well together.

He's

Camp

Boss

of Number 34 when

he isn't acting as

Raid Boss or

Scout Boss.

There's

a

vacancy in

his

camp.

Stay

with liira

and

think things over

as

long as

you

want to. As soon as you make up

your mind

to

anything,

let me know.

We

ail

shook

hands,

for that

was

one

custom

that

had not died out i* five hundred years,

and I set

out

with Bill

Hearn.

Bill,

like

all the

others, was

clad in

green. He was

a

big

man. That

is, he

was about my

own

height, five

feet eleven. This

was

considerably

above

the

average

now,

for

the race had lost

something

in

stature,

it

seemed, through

the vicissitudes

of five centuries. Most

of

the

women

were

a

bit

below

five feet,

and

the

men

only a

trifle

above

this height.

For

a period

of two

weeks

Bill

was to

confine

himself

to camp duties,

so I had a good

chance to

familiarize

myself

with

the

community life.

It was not easy. There

All

able-bodied

men

and

women alternated

week

periods

between

military

and

industrial

except

those who

were needed

for househo

Since working conditions

in the

plants

and off

ideal,

and everybody

thus had

plenty of

hea

door

activity

in addition,

the population

was st

active.

Laziness

was regarded

as

nearly the

of social

offences.

Hard

work and

general

me

variously

rewarded

with

extra privileges,

adva

to

positions

of authority,

and with various

personal equipment

for convenience

and

luxury

In

leisure

moments,

I

got great enjoyment

ting outside

the

dwelling in

which I was

quarte

Bill

Hearn

and ten

other men, watching

the

o

passers-by,

as with leisurely,

but

swift

movemen

swung

up and down

the forest

trail,

rising

ground in

long

almost-horizontal

leaps,

occ

swinging

from

one

convenient

branch ove

another

before

sliding

back to the

ground fa

Normal

traveling

pace,

where

these

trails

were

enough,

was about

twenty miles

an hour. Suc

as

automobiles

and

railroad

trains

(the

memory

not

more

than

a month

old in my mind) seem

pressibly

silly

and

futile compared with

such

ience

as

these belts

or jumpers offered.

Bill suggested

that I wander

around

for seve



430

AMAZING STORIES

Setting his K

In

consequence

it

has a

number

of amazing

and

valu-

able properties.

One

of

these

is

the

total

lack

of

weight.

Another

is

a total

lack of

heat. It

has no

molecular

vibration whatever.

It

reflects 100

percent of

the

heat

and light

impinging

upon

it.

It does

not

feel cold

to

the

touch,

of

course, since

it will

not

absorb

the

heat

of the

hand.

It

is

a

solid, very

dense

in

molecular

struc-

ture

despite its lack

of weight,

of

great strength

and considerable

elasticity. It is a perfect

shield

against

the

disintegrator

rays.

Rocket

guns

are very

simple con-

trivances

so far as the

mechanism

of

launching

the

bullet

is

concerned.

They

are

simple

light

tubes,

closed

at

the rear

end,

with

a

trigger

actu-

ated

pin

for piercing

the thin skin

at the

base

of the cartridge.

This

piercing of

the skin

starts

the

chemical and atomic

reaction.

The

entire

cartridge

leaves the tube un-

der its own

power,

at

a

very

easy

initial velocity,

just

enough to insure accuracy of aim

;

so the

tube does

not

have

to

be of heavy construction. The

bullet

increases

in

velocity as

it goes. It may

be solid

or

explosive.

It

may

explode

on

contact

or

on

time,

or

a

combination of

these

two.

done

otherwise

than

I

did in that matter, and

all my own

appreciation

of

the

fact

that

she

found

it

as

difficult

as the others to believe

m

operated

in

the

same direction.

I could

easil

my story must

have

sounded

incredible.

It

was. natural

enough

too,

that

she

shoul

unusual

interest

in

me. In the first place, I

personal

discovery.

In th

she was a girl

of

studious

flective

turn of

mind.

She

tired

of

my stories

and

des

of

the

20th Century.

The

others of the

co

however,

seemed

to

find

ou

ship

a

bit

amusing.

It

se

Wilma had a

reputation

cold toward

the opposite se

others, not

lieing able

to a

some of her fine qualities

for a long

distance shot,

misinterpreted

her attitude,

their own delight. Wilm

however,

ignored

this as

much

as

we could.

CHAPTER IV

A

Han

Air

Raid

was a girl

in

Wilma's camp nam



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.

Maybe it's- just one of

their

ships off its

course,

I

ventured.

No, said Wilma

in

some agitation. That

would

be

green rockets. Red means

only

one thing, Tony.

They're

sweeping

the

countryside with

their

dis beams,

Can

you

see

anything,

Bill

?

We

had better

get under

cover, Gerdi said

ner-

vously.

The

four

o£ us are

bunched

here

in the

open.

For ail we know

they may be twelve

miles

up,

out of

sight,

yet

looking

at

us

with

a

projecto'.

Bill

had been

sweeping the

horizon hastily

with

his

glass, but apparently

saw

nothing.

We had better scatter,

at

that, he said

finally.

It's

orders,

you

know.

See

He

pointed

to

the

valley.

Here

and

there

a

tiny

human

figure shot for a mo-

ment

above

the

foliage

of

the

treetops.

That's bad,

Wilma

commented, as she

counted

the

jumpers. No less than fifteen people

visible, and

all

clearly radiating

from

a

central

point.

Do

they

want

to

give

away

our location

?

The standard orders covering air raids were that

the

population

was

to

scatter

individually.

There

should

be

no

grouping,

or

even

pairing, in

view

of the destruc-

tiveness

of

the disintegrator

rays.

Experience

of

gen-

erations

had proved that

if this

were

done,

and

every-

body

remained hidden

beneath

the

tree screens, the

daylight (and still faintly

visible

to

the hum

night). Actually,

I

had

been informed

by

my

tors,

there

were two rays;

the visible

one

gen

the

ship's

apparatus, and directed

toward th

as

a

beam

of carrier

impulses

; and

the tru

ray,

the

complement

of

the

other

in

one

sense

by

the action of the

carrier

and

reacting in

trating upward

direction

from the mass

of

t

becoming

successively electronic, atomic

an

molecular,

in its

nature, according

to

various

distance

between

earth mass and carrier

until, in the last

analysis,

the

ship

itself

a

supported

on an upward rushing column

of

like

a

ball

continuously

supported

on

a

fount

The

raider

neared

with

incredible

speed.

were both slanted

astern

at a

sharp angle, so t

forward

with

tremendous

momentum.

The

ship was operating

two

disintegra

though only in

a

casual, intermittent fashion. B

ever

they

flashed downward

with blinding

forest, rocks

and ground

melted

instantaneo

nothing,

where

they

played

upon

them.

When

later

I inspected the scars left by t

I

found them some five

feet deep

and thirty

the

exposed

surfaces being lava-like

in

textur

a pale,

iridescent,

greenish

hue.



402

AMAZING STORIES

It depends on your

rocket, Tony.

It

will

take

even

the longest range

rocket, but you

could

shoot more

accurately

from

a longer tube. But why?

You

couldn't

penetrate the shell

of

that

ship

with

rocket

force, even if

you

could reach it.

I fumbled clumsily with

my

rocket

pouch,

for

I was

excited.

I had

an idea I

wanted to

try;

a

hunch

I

called it,

forgetting that

Wilma

could

not understand

my

ancient

slang.

But

finally, with her help,

I

selected

the

longest

range explosive

rocket in

my

pouch, and

fitted

it

to

my

pistol.

It won't

carry

seven

thousand

feet, Tony,

Wilma

objected.

But

I

took

aim

carefully.

It

was

another

thought that

I

had

in

my mind. The

supporting

re-

pellor ray,

I

had

heeu told, became

molecular

in charac-

ter

at what was

called a

logarithmic

level

of

five (below

that

it

was

a

purely electronic

flow or

pulsation

be-

tween the source of the carrier and the

average mass

of the

earth),

Below

that

level if I could project my

explosive

bullet

into this

stream

where

it

began

to

carry

material substance

upward,

might it

not

rise

with

the

air

column, gathering

speed and

hitting the

ship

with

enough impact to

carry

it

through the

shell ? It was

worth

trying

anyhow. Wilma

became

greatly

excited,

too, when

she

grasped

the

nature

of

my

inspiration.

Feverishly I looked for formation

The

silence,

the

vacuity

of the

landscape,

pressive,

as the

last echoes

died away.

Then far

down

the

hillside,

a

single figu

exultantly above

the

foliage screen. And in th

another,

and

another.

In a moment

the

sky was punctured by signa

One

after

another

the

little

red

puffs became

clouds.

Scatter 1

Scatter

Wilma exclaimed. I

hour

there'll

be

an

entire

Han

fleet

here

from

and

another

from

Bah-fio.

They'll

get

this

on

theiT

recordographs and

location finders.

blast

the

whole

valley

and

the

country

for

yond. Come, Tony.

There's

no

time

for th

rally.

See the

signals.

We've

got to jump.

so

proud

of

you

1

Over

the ridge

we went,

in

long leaps to

east,

the country

of

the

Delawares.

From time

to

time

signal rockets

puffed

in

Most of them

were

the red

warnings,

the

signals.

But

from certain

of the

others, whic

identified

as

Wyoming rackets,

she

gathered

ever was in command (we did not

know

wh

Boss

was

alive

or

not)

was

ordering

an

ulti

toward

the south,

and

so

we

changed

our cou

that the cla



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.

to us, or

that

somewhere, among

the

Wyomings or

some other nearby

gang, there

were traitors

so

de-

graded

as to

commit

that

unthinkable

act of

trafficking

in

inforriiation with the Hans. In

either

contingency,

she

argued, other

Plan

raids

would

follow,

and

since

he

Susquannas had

a

highly

developed

organization

and more than

usually productive

plants,

the

next raid

might

be

expected

to strike

them.

But at any rate it was dearly our

business

to

get in

touch with the other fugitives

as

quickly

as

possible,

so in

spite

of muscles

that

were

sore

from

the

excessive

leaping

of the day before, we

continued

on

our

way.

We

traveled

for

only

a

couple

of

hours

when

we

saw

a

multi-colored rocket

in

the

sky,

some ten

miles

ahead of

us.

Bear

to

the

left,

Tony,

Wilma

said,

and listen

for

the

whistle.

Why?

I

asked.

Haven't they given

you the

rocket

code

yet?

she

replied.

Tliat's what the

green,

followed by yellow

and purple

means;

to

concentrate

five

miles

east

of

the rocket position. You know the rocket

position

itself might

draw

a

play of

disintegrator

beams.

It

did not take us long to

reach

the

neighborhood of

the

indicated rallying, though

we

were now

traveling



434

AMAZING STORIES

cause

of the

mixture

of inertron in its

composition.

This

looks

like

business,

Wilma remarked

to

me

with

sparkling eyes.

(And

I

might mention

a

curious

thing here.

The

word

business had survived from

the 20th Century

American

vocabulary,

but

not

with

any

meaning of

industry

or

trade, for

such

things

being

purely community

activities

were

spoken

of as

work

and

clearing.

Business

simply

meant fight-

ing,

and

that

was

all.)

Did

you

bring

all this equipment

from

the

valley?

I

asked

the Gear boss.

No,

he said. There was no time to gather any-

thing.

All

this stuff we

cleared

from

the Susquannas

a

few hours

ago.

I

was

with

the

Boss

on

the

way down,

and

he

had

me jump on ahead and

arrange

it. But

you

two had better be moving.

He's,

beckoning

you

now.

Hart was about to call us

on

our phones

when

we

looked

up. As

soon

as we

did

so,

he leaped away,

waving

us to

follow

closely.

He was

a

powerful man, and he darted

ahead

in

long, swift,

low leaps

up the banks

of the

stream,

which

followed

a

fairly straight

course

at

this point.

By

ex-

tending

ourselves,,

however,

Wilma and

I

were

able

to catch up to him.

As

we

gradually synchronized our

leaps

with

his,

he

outlined

to

us, between

the

grunts that

accompanied

set. They

slipped

into

little

pockets

over ou

the

fabric helmets

we

wore,

and

shut

out

all

extraneous

sounds.

The chest

discs

wer

self-contained

sending

sets,

strapped

to the

ch

inches

below the neck and actuated by the

from

the

vocal

cords through the

body

tiss

tota range

of

these

sets

was about eighteen

nu

ception

was remarkably clear, quite free from

that so marked the 20th Century radios,

strength

in

direct

proportion

to the distan

speaker.

The

Boss'

set was triple

powered, so

that

would cut in

on

any

local

conversations,

wh

indulged

in,

however, with

great

restraint,

for

the purpose of maintaining contacts.

I

marveled

at

the

efficiency

of this moder

of

battle

communication

in contrast

to

th

signaling devices

of more ancient times; an

other

military contrasts

in

which

the 20th

Century

methods

were the reverse of each

efficiency.

These modern Americans, for

knew

little

of

hand

to

hand

fighting,

and

naturally,

of trench warfare.

Of barrages

quite ignorant,

although they

possessed'

we

terrific power.

And

until

my recent

flash

o

tion,

no

one

among

them, apparently, had eve



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419 A.D.

needed,

Wilma explained

to me,

for the Han cities

were entirely enclosed, with

splendid

arrangements

for

ventilation

and

heating. These

arrangements of

course

were

equally

adequate in their airships.

The

Hans,

indeed,

had

quite

a

distaste

for

unshaded

daylight,

since

their

lighting

apparatus

diffused

a

controlled

amount of violet

rays,

making

the unmodified

sunlight

unnecessary

for health, and undesirable for comfort.

Since the Hans did

not have the secret of

inertron, none

of

them wore anti-gravity

belts.

Yet

in spite

of

the

fact

that they had

to

bear

their own full weights at

all

times,

they were physically

far inferior

to

the Americans, for

they

lived lives

of

degenerative physical

inertia,

having

machinery

of

every

description

for the

performance

of

all labor,

and

convenient

conveyances for any

move-

ment

of

more

than a few steps.

Even from the twisted wreckage

of this

ship

I

could

see

that

seats,

chairs and couches played

an

extremely

important

part

in

their scheme of

existence.

But none of

the

bodies

were

overweight.

They

seemed

to have

been the bodies

of

men in

good health,

but

muscularly

much

underdeveloped.

Wilma

ex-

plained

to me

that they had

mastered

the science

of

gland

control,

and of course dietetics, to the

point

where

men and

women

among them not uncommonly

reached the

age of

a

hundred

years with

arteries

and

there?

Speak in rotation

from Bald Knob

the

east,

north, west.

In

turn

the men called their

names. Th

twenty of

them.

1 assigned

them by name

to

cover

the

var

ships,

numbering

the

latter

from

left

to right

Train

your

rockets

on

their

repellor

r

three-quarters

of the

way

up,

between

s

ground.

Aim

is more important than

elevati

low

those

rays with your aim

.continuously.

Sh

I

tell

you, not before.

Deering

has the reco

Hans

probably have

not seen us, or at

least

t

are but

two of us in the valley, since

they'r

without

opening

up

disintegrators.

Any

opin

My ear discs remained

silent.

Deering

and I

Temain

here until they

debark.

Stand by

and keep alert.

Rapidly and easily the .largest

of

the

Han

tled

to

the earth. Three

scouted sharply to

rising

to

a higher

level.

The others

floated

m

about

a

thousand feet

above.

Peeping through a

small

fissure

between

t

I saw the vast hulk

of

the ship

come

to

rest

f

line of

our

prospective

ring

barrage.

A doo

open a

couple

of

feet

from the ground, an

one the crew emerged.



436 AMAZING

STORIES

Wilma,

leap

I

almost

whispered the order.

The

distance between

Wilma's

hiding

place

and

the

door in the

side of

the

Han ship was not more

than

fifteen

feet.

She

was

already

crouched

with

her

feet

braced

gainst a metal

beam.

Taking

the lift of that

wonderful

inertfon

belt

into

her calculation,

she dove

headforemost, like

a green

projectiie,

through the

door.

I

followed

in

a

split

second,

more

clumsily, but no less

speedily, bruising

my

shoulder painfully, as I

ricocheted

from the edge of

the

opening

and

brought

up

sliding

against the

unconscious

girl ; for she

evidently

had

hit

her

head

against the partition

within

the

ship

into

which

she had crashed.

We

had

made some

noise

within

the

ship. Shuffling

footsteps were approaching down a well

lit

gangway.

Any

signs

we have been observed? I asked

my

men on the

hillsides.

Not yet,

I

heard

the Boss reply,

Ships

overhead

still

standing.

No beams have been broken out. Men

on

ground

absorbed

in

wreck. Most

of them

have

crawled

into

it out of sight.

Good,

I said quickly.

Deering

hit her head.

Knocked

out. One or

more members

of

the

crew ap-

proaching.

We're

not discovered

yet. I'll

take care of

them. Stand

a

bit longer, but be ready.

I think

my

last

words

must have

been

heard

by

the

Again

there

was

a

chorus

of

assent.

Then

on the count

of three, shoot up thos

rays

—

-all

of them

—and for God's sake,

do

And

I

counted.

I

think

my

three

was

a

bit

weak.

I

kn

all

the courage

I had

to utter it.

For

an

agonizing

instant

nothing

happene

that the landing

party from

the

ship

strolle

range

of

vision.

Then

startled,

they

turned their

eyes

upwa

an

instant

they

stood frozen

with

horror

at

they

saw.

One hurled his

knife

at

me.

It grazed

Then

a

couple

of

them

made

a break for the

The

rest

followed. But

I

fired

pointblank

hand-gun,

pressing

the

button

as

fast

as

I

aiming

at

their feet

to make

sure

my

explosi

would make

contact and

do

their

work.

The

detonations of my

rockets were deafen

spot on which

the

Hans stood

flashed

into

a

glare. Then

there

was

nothing there

except

and

mutilated

corpses.

They

had been fairly

and I

got

them

all.

I

ran to the

door, expecting

any instant

to

into

infinity

by the sweep of

a

disintegrator

r

Some eighth

of

a

mile

away

I

saw

one of



ARMAGEDDON—

2419

A.D.

office in

Nu-yok

from

the Susquanna

station.

It

was

in

the

form

of a public warning and news item,

and

read

as

follows

This is

Public

Intelligence Office,

Nu-Yok,

broad-

casting warning

to

navigators of

private

ships, and

news

of public

interest.

The squadron of

seven

ships

which left Nu-Yok this

morning

to

investigate

the

re-

cent

destruction

of the GK-984 in

the Wyoming Valley, lias

been de-

stroyed by

a series

of

mysterious

explosions similar

to those which

wrecked the GK-984.

The phones, viewplates,

and

all

other signaling

devices of fire of the

seven

ships ceased

operating

sud-

denly at

approximately

the same

moment,

about

seven-

four-nine.

(According

to

the

Han system of

reckoning

tine,

seven and forty-

nine

one

hundredths

after mid-

night.)

After

violent

disturbances

the location

finders

went

out of

op-

eration.

Electroactivity

registers

applied

to

the

terri-

tory

of the Wyoming Valley

remain

dead.

The Intelligence

Office

has

no indication

of

the kind

of disaster which

overtook the squadron

except certain

evidences

of explosive

similar

-if -

As

the

American

leaped, lie

tmiae

Ms

legs

SS

in

front

of

him,

catcMnc ths Has full

ia

the

stomach.

fore

it went

dead

recently.

There the

botto

toscope

relays

of all

ships registered

the wre

GK-984. Teleproj

ecto

scope views

of

the

w

the

bowl of the valley showed

no

evidenc

presence of tribesmen.

Neither ship registers

registers showed

any indication of electroact

cept

from

die

squadron itself.

On

orders

Base Squadron Command

_,.^

:

M_

LD-248,

LK-745

and

scouted southward at

3,

The GK-43, GK-981

and

stood above at 2,500 feet,

GK-18

landed to

permit

inspection of

the

wreck

science

committee, The

barked, leaving

one man

in the

control

cabin.

He

s

jectoscopes

at

universal

cept RB-3,

(this

meant

projectoscope

from the bo

ship,

on the

right-hand

si

lower

deck)

with which

lowed

the landing

group

as

it

walked

around t

The

first abnormal

phenomenon recorde

of

the

instruments at Base

was

that

relayed

cally

from

projectoscope

RB-4

of the

GK-1



438 AMAZING STORIES

Its

records

add

little

to

the knowledge

of

the disaster.

But with

the

LK-745

and the LG-25

it

was

different.

The

relay instruments

of

the LK-745

indicated

the

destruction

by an explosion of the rear

rep-ray

genera-

tor,

and that the

ship

hung stern down

for

a

short

space,

swinging

like

a

pendulum.

The

forward

view-

plates

and

indicators did

not

cease functioning, but

their

records

are chaotic, except for

one projectoscope

still,

which

shows

the bowl of

the

valley, and the

GK-

981

falling,

but no visible

evidence

of tribesmen. The

control-room

viewplate is also a

chaotic record of the

ship's crew

tumbling

and

falling

to

the rear wall.

Then

the

forward rep-ray generator exploded,

and all signals

went

dead.

The

fate

of the

LG-25

was

somewhat

similar,

ex-

cept that

this ship

hung

nose

down,

and drifted on the

wind southward as

it

slowly

descended

out

of control.

As

its control room

was

shattered,

verbal report

from

its

Action Captain was precluded. The

record of

the

interior rear

viewplate

shows

members

of the crew

climbing

toward the rear rep-ray

generator in an

at-

tempt

to

establish

manual

control

of

it,

and

increase

the

lift The projectoscope

relays,

swinging in wide

arcs,

recorded

little

of

value except

at

the

ends

of

their

swings. One of these,

from

a

machine

which

happened

to

be

set in telescopic

.

,cus,

shows

several views

of

-which had been seared

by the

Han beams

an

mediate

locations

of the Han wrecks.

During this period,

a

sharp check was k

Han messages, for the

phone plant had been o

first

to be put in operation, and when it becam

that the

Hans

did not

intend

any

immediate

the

entire membership

of the

community

w

moned

back,

and

normal life was

resumed.

Wilma

and I

had been married

the

day

destruction

of

the

ships, and

spent

this

in

period in

a

delightful

honeymoon, camping

hi

mountains. On

our

return, we

had

a

camp

of

of

course.

We

were assigned to

location

10

as

might

be

expected,

we

had

a great deal

over

which

one

of

us

was

Camp Boss. The t

after

my

name

on

the Big Boss'

records,

and

the Big

Camboss, of course, but Wilma airily

this meant

nothing

at

all

—

and generally

suc

making me admit it whenever

she chose.

I

found

myself

a

full-fledged

member

of

now, for I had elected

to

search no farther

f

manent

alliance,

much

as

I

would

have

liked

iarize

myself with

this 25th Century

life

sections

of

the country.

The

Wyomings ha

morale,

and had prospered

under

the rule of

Hart

for many

years. But

many

of

the

gangs,



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.

But owing

to

the

centuries

of desperate

suffering

the people had endured

at the

hands of the

Hans,

there

developed

a

spirit

of

self-sacrifice

and consideration

for the

common

good

that

made the scheme

applicable

and efficient

in

all

forms of human cooperation.

I

have

a

little

heresy

about

all

this,

however.

My

associates regard

the thought

with

as much

horror

as

many worthy

people of the 20th

Century

felt

in

regard

to

any

heretical suggestion that the

original

outline

of

government

as laid down in the First

Constitution

did

not

apply as

well

to

20th

Century

conditions

as

to

those

of the

early

19th.

In later years,

I felt

that there was a

certain soften-

ing

of

moral

fiber

among

the

people; since

the

Hans

had

been

finally destroyed with all their

works

;

and

Americans have

developed

a

new

luxury

economy.

I

have seen signs of

the

reawakening

of greed, of

self-

ishness. The eternal cycle

seems

to

be

at

work.

I fear

that slowly, though surely,

private wealth

is

reappear-

ing, codes

of

inflexibility

are

developing; they will

be

followed by corruption, degradation

;

and

in

the end

some

cataclysmic

event

will

end

this

era

and

usher

in

a

new one:

All

this,

however, is

wandering afar

from

my

story,

which concerns

our

early battles against

the

Hans, and

not

our

more

modern problems of self-control.

rays unless

we use much larger rockets.

wise

to

us

now.

They're putting

armor

of

gr

ness in the hulls of their ships

below

the

machines.

Near

Bah-flo this morning

a

party

shot one

without

success.

The explosions

her,

but

did not penetrate.

As

near as

we

c

from

their reports, their laboratories have

a new alloy of

great

tensile

strength and elastic

nevertheless

lets

the rep-rays through like

a

s

reports

indicate that the Eries' rockets bou

harmlessly.

Most

of the

party was

wiped

o

dis rays went

into action

on them.

This

is

going to mean

real

business for a

gangs

before

long.

The

Big

Bosses

have

ju

national

ultrophone council. It

was

deci

America

must organize on

a

national

basis.

move is

to

develop

sectional organization b

I

have-

been

made Superboss of the Midatlan

We're in for it

now.

The Hans

are

sure

reprisal

expeditions.

If we're to save the race

keep

them

away

from

our camps and

plan

thinking

of

developing

a

permanent

field

for

the

lines

of the -regular armies

of the 20th Cen

told me about.

Its business

will

be twofold;

the warfare

as

much

as

possible

to the

Hans

serve

as

a

decoy,

to beep

their attention



440

AMAZING STORIES

they've

been using

code.

Finally,

we've picked up

three of

their

messages

in which, they

discuss, with

some nervousness,

the

existence of

our

'mysterious'

ultrophone.

But they

still

have no

knowledge of the

nature

and

control

of ultronic activity? I

asked.

No,

said the Big

Boss

thoughtfully,

they don't

seem

te

have a

bit of information about

it.

Then

it's quite clear, I

ventured,

that whoever

is

'clearing'

us to

them is

doing

it

piecemeal.

It sounds

like

a

bit of

occasional

barter,

rather

than

an out and

out

alliance. They're

holding back as

much informa-

tion

as

possible for future

bartering,

perhaps.

Yes,

Hart said, and

it

isn't

information

the

Hans

are

giving

in return, but some

form

of goods,

or privi-

lege.

The

trick would

be to

locate

the goods.

I guess

I'll

have

to make a

personal trip

around among the

Big Bosses.

CHAPTER VIII

The

Han

City

THIS

conversation

set

me

thinking.

All of the

Han

electrophone

inter-communication

had been

an

open

record

to

the

Americans for

a

good many

years,

and

the

Hans were just

finding

it

out.

For

cen-

When I

told

Wilma

of the plan,

I

expec

raise

violent and

tearful

objections,

but

she di

was

made

of far sterner stuff than

the

wom

20th Century.

Not

that

she

couldn't weep

as

or

be just as

whimsical

on

occasion;

but sh

weep

for the

same

reasons.

She

just

gave me an

unfathomable

look,

there seemed

to

be

a bit of

pride,

and

ask

for the

details.

I

confess

I

was somewhat

di

that she

could so

courageously

risk

my loss, ev

I was amazed

at her

fortitude.

But later I

wa

how

little

I knew

her then.

We

were

ready to slide

off

at

dawn the

n

ing.

I

had

kissed

Wilma

good-bye

at

our c

after

a

final conference over our

plans,

we bo

craft and gently glided

away over

the tree

course, which,

after crossing three

routes of

ships,

would

take us out

over

the Atlanti

Jersey

coast, whence

we would come

up on

from the

ocean.

Twice

we

had

to

nose down and

lie

moti

the

ground

near

a route

while

Han

ships pass

were

tense moments.

Had

the

green

back o

been

observed, we would

have been

disinteg

second.

But it

wasn't.

Once

over

the

water,

however,

we

climbed



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419 A.D.

hold her

steady. No

—

here,

watch

this

indicator

the

red

beam, not

the green one.

See

—

if you keep

it exactly

centered

on

the

needle,

you're O.K.

The

width of the beam represents

seventeen

feet.

The

tower platform is fifty

feet

square,

so

we've got

a

good

margin

to

work

on.

For several moments

we

watched as Gibbons bent

over his levers, constantly adjusting them with deft

touches of

his fingers. After

a

bit

of wavering, the

beam

remained centered

on the needle.

Now,

I

said, let's drop.

I

opened

the trap

and looked

down,

but quickly

shut

)t again when

I

felt the

air

rushing out

of the ship into

the

rarefied

atmosphere in a

torrent.

Gibbons

literally

yelled

a

protest

from his instrument board.

I forgot,

I

mumbled. Silly

of

me. Of

course,

we'll

have

to

drop

out of

compartment.

The

compartment,

to

which

I

referred, was

similar

to those in some of the

20th

Century

submarines.

We

all entered it.

There

was

barely room for

us to

stand,

shoulder

to

shoulder. With

some

struggles, we

got

into our special air

helmets

and

adjusted the

pressure.

At our

signal,

Gibbons

exhausted

the

air in the

com-

partment,

pumping it into the body

of

the

ship,

and

as the little

signal light flashed, Wilma

threw

open the

hatch.

Setting the ultron

wire

reel,

I

climbed through,

and

piled

up. on tower, and all

built

on the vast b

of the

city,

which,

so I

Iiad

been

told, sheered

from the

surface

of the

rivers

to a

height

of

72

The

city,

I

noticed

with

some

surprise,

did

n

anything

like the same area as the New York

20th

Century.

It occupied,

as

a

matter

of

fa

the lower half of Manhattan

Island,

with

one

straddling

the

East

River

and

spreading

out suf

over what

once had been

Brooklyn,-

to provid

for the great

liners

and- other

air craft.

Straight

beneath my feet

was a

tiny

dark

pa

seemed

the

only spot

in

the

entire

city

that

aflame

with

radiance.

This

was

the central t

the

top

floors

of

which were housed the vast

of record files and

the

main projectoscope plant.

You can shoot the wire now, I ultrophon

bons, and let

go

the little

weighted knob.

It

like

a

plummet,

and we

followed

with

cons

speed, but braking our descent

with

gloved

sufficiently to see whether the knob,

on

which

light

glowed as

a

signal for ourselves, might

served by any

Han guard

or night

prowler.

App

it

was

not,

and

we

again shot

down

with

acc

speed.

We

landed

on

the roof of

the tower

with

mishap, and fortunately for our

plan,

in

d

Since there was nothing

.above

it

on

which

i

442

AMAZING

STORIES.



probably

be

asleep,

and

two

or

three in

the

library

proper and

the

projectoscope

plant.

We've

got to put them out

of commission,

I

said.

Did you

bring

the

'dope' cans,

Wilma?

Yes, she said,

two for each. Here,

and

she

distributed

them.

We

were

now two

levels below

the

roof, and at the

point

where

we

were

to

separate.

I did not

want

to

let

Wilma out

of

my

sight, but it

was

necessary.

According

to our

plan, Barker was

to

make

his way

to the

projectoscope

plant,

Slash and

I

to

the library,

and Wilma and Gaunt to

the

military

office.

Blash and I traversed a long

corridor,

and

paused at

the great arched doorway of

the

library.

Cautiously

we peered in. . Seated

at

three great

switchboards

were

library

operatives. Occasionally one of

them

would

reach

lazily

for

a

level

-

,

or

sleepily push

a

button, as

little

numbered lights

winked on and

off.

They

were

answering calls for

electrograph

and

viewplate

records

on

all

sorts

of subjects from

all

sections

of

the

city.

I apprised my

companions of

the

situation.

Better

wait

a

bit,

Blash

added.

The

calls

will

lessen

shortly.

Wilma

reported

an officer in the

military

office sound

asleep*

then; I said.

in

a

great leap toward the intersection

whenc

I could

see

her.

In

the middle of my

leap

my

ultrophone

her gasp

of

alarm. The

next

instant I glided

at the intersection

to see

Wilma

backing t

door

of the

military

office, her sword red wi

and an inert form on the

corridor

floor.

T

Hans were circling

to

either side of her

wi

looking

knives,

while

a

third evidently a

hi

judging

by

the resplendence of his

garb tugge

ately

to

get

an

electrophone

instrument

out o

pocket.

If he

ever gave

the

alarm,

there was

what might

happen

to

us.

I

was at

least

seventy feet away,

but

I

cro

and

sprang

with

every bit of

strength in

my

would

be

more correct

to say tliat

I dive

reached

the

fellow

head

on,

with

no

attempt

my legs

beneath me.

Some

instinct

must have warned him, for

suddenly

as

I hurtled close

to

him.

But

by

I

had sunk

close

to-

the

floor,

and had stiffen

rigidly,

lest

a

dragging

knee or foot might

jus

my

reaching

him. I brought

my

blade

up

over.

It

was

a

vicious

slash

that laid him

ope

ing

him from groin

to chin, and his dead

bod

down oh me,

as

I

slid

to a

tangled

stop.

The

other two startled, turned.

Wilma



ARMAGEDDON

—

2419 A.D.

ship,

and

he

managed, with the

aid

of

his

delicate

instruments,

to sense

the

drifts almost

before they af-

fected the fine nitron wire, and to

neutralize

them with

little

shifts in the

position

of

the

ship.

Blash

and

Gaunt fastened their

rings

to

the

wire,

and

I

hooked

my

own

and

Wilma's

on,

too.

But

on

looking

around,

I

found

Barker

was

still missing.

Barker,

come I called. We're

waiting.

Coming

he

replied, and indeed,

at that

instant,

his figure

appeared up the

ramp.

He

chuckled

as he

fastened his ring

to

the

wire

and said something

ahout

a

little surprise

he had left for the

Hans.

Don't

reel in the wire more than

a

few

hundred

feet, I

instructed

Gibbons.

It

will

take

too

long

to

wind

it

in.

We'll

float

up, and when we're

aboard,

we

can drop it.

In

order

to float up, we had to dispense

with

a

pound

or two

of weight

apiece.

We

hurled

our swords

from

us,

and

kicked

off

our

shoes as

Gibbons

reeled

up the

line

a

bit, and then letting

go

of the

wire, began

to

hum

upward

on

our

rings

with increasing

velocity.

The

rush

of

air

brought

Wilma

to, and

I

hastily

ex-

plained to

her that

we had

been

successful.

Receding

far below us now, I

could

see our

dully

shining

knob

swinging to and fro in an ever

widening arc,

as it

crossed

and

recrossed

the black

square

of the

tower

CHAPTER

X

The

Walls

of

Hell

THE

traitors

were, it

seemed,

a

degener

of

Americans, located

a

few

miles

nort

yok

on

the

wooded

banks

of the

Hud

Sinsings.

They

had

exchanged

scraps

of

inf

to

the

Hans in

return for several old rep

machines,

and the

privilege of timing

in

on

electronic power

broadcast

for

their operat

vided

their

ships

agreed

to subject

themselv

orders of the Han traffic office,

while aloft.

The

rest

wanted to

ultrophone

their

news

since there

was

always

danger

that

we

mig

get back to the gang with it.

I objected,

however. The

Sinsings

would

to

pick

up

our

message. Even

if

we

used

the

d

projector,

they might

have

scouts

out

to

the

south

in

the big inter-gang

stretches of count

would flee

to Nu-Yok

and escape

the

punishm

merited.

It

seemed

to be

vitally important

should

not,

for the

sake of

example

to

ot

groups

among

the

American gangs,

as well

a

vent

a crisis in

which they might clear more vi

mation

to

the enemy.

Out to sea again, I ordered

Gibbons. T



444

AMAZING

STORIES

evitably, to

be

sucked

into

the

destruction wall

at some

lower level.

But very

gradually

and

jerkily our upward move-

ment, as shown on the indicators, began to

increase,

and

after an hour of desperate struggle we

were free

of

the

maelstrom

and

into the

rarefied

upper levels.

The

terror beneath

us

was

now

invisible

through several

layers of

cloud

formations.

Gibbons

brought the ship back

to

an even

keel,

and

drove

her

eastward into

one

of the

most

brilliantly gor-

geous sunrises I have

ever seen.

We

described

a great

circle

to the south and

west,

in

a long easy dive,

for

he had

cut

out his

rocket

motors

to save them

as

much as possible.

We

had drawn

terrifically on

their fuel

reserves

in

our

battle with

the

elements. For

the

moment,

the

atmosphere below

cleared,

and we

could

see the Jersey

coast

far

beneath,

like a great

map.

We're

not

through

yet,

remarked Gibbons sud-

denly,

pointing

at his periscope, and

adjusting

it to

telescopic focus.

A

Han ship, and a 'drop ship' at

that

—

and

he's

seen

us. If

he

whips

that

beam

of

his

on us,

we're

done.

1 gazed,

fascinated,

at the viewplate. What I saw

was a

cigar

shaped ship not dissimilar to our own

in

design,

and

from the

proportional

size of its

ports,

rocket gun

and a

split

second

later the

Han

apart like

a

clay

pigeon.

We staggered, and fluttered crazily for

se

ments while

Gibbons

struggled to

bring

our

balance,

and

a

section

of about four squar

the side of the ship

near

the

stern

slowly

crum

rusted metal. His

beam actually

had touche

our explosive

rocket

had

got

him

a

thousan

second sooner.

Part of our

rudder

had

been annihilated,

motor damaged.

But we

were

able

to

swo

back across

Jersey,

fortunately

crossing the

s

without sighting any

more Han

craft,

an

settling to rest in the little

glade

beneath

the

t

Hart's

<amp.

CHAPTER XI

The New

Bess

WE

had ultrophoned our arrival and

Boss himself,

surrounded

by the

Cou

on hand

to

welcome

us

and

learn

o

In

turn

we were informed that during the

nig

of

raiding Bad

Bloods, disguised under

the

i

the Altoonas,

a

gang some distance

to the we

had destroyed several

of

our

camps

before

o

ARMAGEDDON

2419 A.D.



—

gang feua ahead

of honor

and

duty and the

hopes

of

all America.

As

I

concluded,

a great

calm came over me, as of

one

detached. I

had

felt

much the

same way

during

several crises in

the

First

World

War.

I gazed from

face

to

face,

striving

to

read

their

expressions,

and

in

a

mood to

make

good

my

threat

without

any further

heroics, if

the

decision

was

against

me.

But it

was

Hart

who

sensed

the

temper

of the

Coun-

cil

more

quickly than I did,

and looked

beyond

it

into

the future.

He

arose

from the tree

trunk

on

which

he had been

sitting.

That

settles it, be said, looking

around

the

ring.

I have felt

this

thing

coming

on for

some

time

now.

I'm sure the Council agrees

with

me

that there

is among

us

a

man

more capable

than

I, to

boss

the Wyoming

Gang,

despite his handicap

of

having had all

too

short

a

time

in

which

to familiarize himself, with

our modern

ways

and

facilities. Whatever

I can do to support

his

.effective

leadership,

at

any

cost, I

pledge

myself

to

do.

As

he

concluded,

he

advanced

to

where I stood, and

taking

from

his

head

the 'green crested helmet that

constituted

his badge

of

office,

to my

surprise

he placed

it in

my mechanically

extended hand.

But

the

extermination

of the

Sinsings

wo

another thing.

In

the first place,

there

woul

warning of

our action until

it was all

over,

I

In the

second place,

we

would

have

indisputabl

in the form

of their

rep ray

ships and

other

pa

nalia,

of

their

traffic

with

the

Hans;

and

the

American

prejudice,

at

the

time

of

which I wri

trafficking

with the

Hans

a

far

more

heinous

thi

even

a

vicious

gang

feud.

I

called

an executive

session of

the Council

I wanted to inventory

our military

resources.

I

created

a

new

office

on the

spot,

that of

Boss,

and

appointed

Ned

Garlin

to the

post,

over

his former

responsibility

as Plants Boss

assistant.

I needed

someone,

I felt,

to

tie

in

cords

of

the

various

functional

activities

of

th

paign, and take over from

me the task

of keep

records of

them up

to

the

minute.

I received reports from

the bosses

of

the ult

unit,

and

those

of

food,

transportation,

fighti

chemistry, electronic

activity

and electrophone

gence, ultroscopes, air patrol

and contact guard

My

ideas

for

the

campaign, of

course,

were

what tinged with

my

20th Century experience,

found myself

faced

with

the task

of

working

staff organization

that was a composite

of the b



446 AMAZING STORIES

In

the final

summing

up of

our personnel

and re-

sources, I

found

we had

roughly

a thousand

troops,

of

whom some three hundred and fifty

were,

in

what

I

called The Service

Divisions,

the rest

being in

Bill

Hearn's Field Division. This

latter

number,

however,

was

cut

down

somewhat

by

the

assignment

of

numer-

ous

small units to detached service.

Altogether, the

actual

available

fighting

force,

I

figured, would number

about five

hundred,

by the

time

we

actually

went

into

action.

We

had

only

six small

swoopers,

but

I had an

ingenious

plan

in

my

mind,

as

the result of

our

little

raid

on

Nu-yok, that would

make this sufficient, since

the

reserves

of inertron blocks

were

larger

than

I

ex-

pected

to

find

them.

The

Resources

Division,

by

packing

its supply

cases a bit tight, or by slipping in

extra

blocks

of

inertron,

was

able

to'

reduce each to

a

weight

of a few ounces. These easily

could

be

floated

and towed

by

the swoopers

in any

quantity. Hitched

to

ulrron

lines, it

would

be a

virtual

impossibility

for

them

to

break loose.

The

entire

personnel,

of

course,

was

supplied

with

jumpers, and if each man and girl

was

careful

to ad-

just

balances properly,

the entire

number

could also

be towed along through the air,

grasping

wires of

ultron, swinging

below the swoopers, or stringing

out

to a

halt and maintained 4heir

positions

fo

with

the idling blasts of their rocket motors

the

ultroscope

operators

a

chance

to make a

examiuatiou

of

the territory

below

us,

for it

important that this next

step

in

our

progra

be

carried

out

with

ail

secrecy.

At

length they reported the

ground

below

u

clear of any appearance of

human

occupatio

gun

unit

of long-range

specialists

was

lowe

a

dozen

rocket giuis, equipped

with

special

devices

that

the

Resources Division

had dev

my

request,

a few

hours

before

our

departure

were

aiming

and timing devices. After

calcu

range,

elevation

and

rocket

charges

carefully,

were

left,

concealed

in

a

ravine,

and the m

hauled up into

the

ship

again.

At

the pred

hour, those

unmanned

rocket

guns would be

matically

to

bombard the

Bad

Bloods' hillsides

their aim and

elevation

slightly with each sho

many of

our artillery pieces

in

the First Wor

In

the meantime, we turned

south

about

twe

and

grounded,

waiting

for

the

bombardment

before we attempted

to

sneak

across the

Han

I

was relying

for

security on the distraction

bombardment

might furnish

the

Han observer

It was tense

work waiting,

but the aff

ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.



liad

taken the

previous

night, climbed

in

a

long

semi-

circle out

over

the ocean, swung toward

the north and

finally

the

west.

We

set

our

course, however,

for the

Sinsings

land

north

of

Nu-yok, instead

of

for

the

city

itself.

CHAPTER

XII

The

Finger

of

Doom

AS

we crossed the Hudson

River,

a

few

miles north

of the city, we dropped several

units

of

the

Yellow Intelligence

Division,

with

full

instru-

mental equipment.

Their

apparatus

cases were

nicely

balanced at only

a

few ounces weight

each,

and the

men used

their

chute

capes

to ease

their

drops.

We

recrossed

the

river a

little

distance

above

and

began dropping

White

Intelligence

units

and a

few

long and

short

range

gun

units. Then

we

held

our

position

until we

began to get reports.

Gradually

we

ringed the territory of the Sinsings, our

observation

units working busily

and

patiently

at

their

locaters

and

scopes,

both

aloft

and

aground,

until Garlin finally

turned to me with the

remark,

The

map

circle is

complete now, Boss. We've got

clear

locations

all the

way

around

them.

Let me see it, I replied,

and

studied the

illuminated

Again

I gave

the

word,

and Hearn

passe

order to

his

subordinates.

Far below

us,

and

several

miles to the

r

left, the two

barrage

lines made

their ap

From the great

height to which

we

had

ri

appeared

like

lines

of

brilliant,

winking

lights

detonations

were muffled

by

the

distances

in

of rumbling,

distant thunder.

Hearn

and

h

ants were

very

busy ; measuring,

calculating,

a

ping

out ultrophone orders

to

unit command

resulted in the

straightening

of

Hues

and th

of

gaps

in the

barrage.

The

White

Division

Boss

reported the utm

fusion

in the

Sinsing

organization.

(They

might

be expected, an inefficient,

loosely

d

gang), and repeated broadcasts

for

help

to

nei

gangs. Ignoring the fact that the

Mongolians

used

explosives for

many generations,

they

less

jumped

at

the conclusion that

they

we

raided by the

Hans.

Their frantic broadcasts

in

this

thought, despite

the

nervous

electrop

quiries

of

the Hans- themselves,

to

whom the

the battle was evidently audible,

and who

we

to

locate

the

trouble.

At

this

point,

the swooper

I

had sent Sout

the

city

went into action

as a diversion,

to



•448

AMAZING

STORIES

were whistling,

as

he adjusted

the tall tripod

on

which

the long

tube

was

balanced.

Swiftly he

twirled

the

knobs

controlling

the

aim and

elevation

of

his

piece.

Then,

lifting

a

belt of ammunition

from

the

big box,

which itself

looked

heavy

enough

to

break down

the

spindly

tripod,

he

inserted

the end of it in the lock of

his

tube

and touched the proper combination of buttons.

Then he stepped

aside,

and

occupied himself with

peering

carefully

through the

trees

ahead. Not even a

tremor

shook the

tube, but I

knew

that at

intervals

of

something less than

a

second, it was discharging small

projectiles

which, traveling under their, own continu-

ously

reduced

power, were

arching into the

air,

to

fall

precisely

five

miles

ahead and

explode

with

the

force

of

eight-inch

shells,

such as we used in the

First World

War.

Another gunner,

fifty

feet to

the

right

of him,

waved

a hand and called

out something

to

him. Then, picking

up his

own tube and tripod, he

gauged the

distance

between the

trees

ahead of him, and the height of

their

lowest

branches,

and

bending forward

a

bit,

flexed

his

muscles

and

leaped

lightly,

some

twenty-five

feet.

Another

leap

took

him

another

twenty feet or so,

where he

began to set

up

his

piece.

I

ordered

my

observer

then

to switch to the barrage

itself.

He

got a

close focus

on it, but

this

showed

many, stood

aiound

in

tense

attitudes, the

phones

strapped

around

their

ears, nervously

the

tuning

controls

at their

belts.

Unquestion

must

have

located some

of our

frequencies,

heard

many of

our reports

and orders. But

confused

and disorganized.

If they had an U

Boss

they

evidently

were not reporting

to

h

organized

way.

They

were

beginning

to draw

back now b

advancing

fire.

With

intermittent

desperat

began

to

shoot over

our barrage

again,

and

sions

of

their

rockets

flashed

at widely

scatte

beyond.

A few

took distance

pot

shots.

Oddly

enough it

was

our

own

forces

tha

the

first casualties

in

the battle.

Some of

thes

shots

by

chance registered

bits,

while

our

under strict

orders

not to

exceed

their

barrage

Seen upon

the ultroscope

viewplate,

the bat

as though it

were

being

fought

in

daylight,

p

a cloudy

day,

while

the

explosions

of the

ro

peared

as

flashes

of

extra

brilliance.

The

two

barrage

lines

were

not

more

than

dred

feet apart

when the

Sinsings

resorted

we

had

not

foreseen.

We

noticed

first

that

t

to

lighten

themselves

by

throwing

away

ext

ment.

A few of

them

in their

excitement

ARMAGEDDON

—

2419

A.D.



been

located

by one

of

the enemy's

ultroscopes and

brought down

with

long-gun fire.

Since nearly

every

member

of the Sinsing Gand

had,

so

far

as

we knew,

been killed, we considered the

raid

a

great success.

It had, however,

a

far

greater significance than

this.

To

all

of us

wlio

took part

in the

expedition, the

effectiveness

of our barrage

tactics definitely estab-

lished

a

confidence

in

our ability to

overcome

the

Hans.

As

I

pointed

out to

Wilma

It

has

been

my

belief

all

along,

dear,

that

the

American

explosive

rocket

is a far

more

efficient weap-

on than

the

disintegrator ray

of

the

Hans, once

we

can train all our gangs to use

it systematically

and

in

co-ordinated fashion. As a

weapon

in the

hands

of

a

single

individual, shooting

at

a

mark

in

direct

line of

vision,

the

rocket-gun is inferior

in destructive

power

to

the dis

ray,

except as its range may

be

a little

greater. The trouble is that to

date

it has

been used

only

as

we

used

our rifles and

shot

guns in the

20th

Century.

The possibilities

of

its use

as

artillery,

in

laying

barrages that advance

along

the gro

climb into

the air, are tremendous.

The dis

ray

inevitably

reveals its

source of

tion. The

rocket

gun

does

not.

The

dis

ray

ca

its

target

only

in a

straight

line.

The rocket

made to travel in an

arc, over

intervening

obst

an unseen

target.

Nor must

we

forget

that our ultronists

n

promising

us

a

perfect

shield

against the dis

inertron.

I tremble though,

Tony dear, when

I

think

horrors that are ahead

of

us. The Hans are

They will develop defenses against our

new

And they

are sure

to

mass against

us not only

force

of

their

power

in

America,

but the unite

of the World

Empire.

They are a

cowardly

one sense, but clever

as

the

very

Devils

in

He

inheritors of

a

calm, ruthless, vicious persiste

Nevertheless, I prophesied,

the

Finger

o

points

squarely at

them today,

and

unless

yo

are killed in the struggle, we shall live to see

blast the Yellow

Blight

from

the

face of

the Ea





site

AIULORBS

*

HAN

By

Philip

Franeis

Nowlan

A

Sequel

to

Armageddon—

2419

A.

D.

CHAPTER

I

T&e Airlords

Besieged

BN

a

previous

record of my adventures

in the

early

part of the

Second War

of

Inde-

i pendence

I

explained

how

I,

Anthony

I

Rogers,

was

overcome by

radioactive

gases

in

an

abandoned

mine near

Scranton

in

the

year

1927,

where I

existed in

a

state of

suspended ani-

.,

matfon for

nearly

five hundred

years; and

awakened

to find that

the

America

I knew had been

crashed

.

under

the cruel

tyranny

of

the

Airlords

of

Han,

fierce

Mongolians, who,

as

scientists

now'

contend, had in

their blood a taint not of this

earth, and

who

with

science and resources far in advance

of

those

of

a

United States, economically prostrate

at

the end of

a

long

1

series

of

wars

with

a

Bolshevik Europe, in

the

year 2270

A.D., had swept

down

from

the

skies in

their great

airships

that rode

repeller

rays

as

a

hall

rides the stream of

entire

squadron crashing

to earth ; bow

a

ha

in a rocketship successfully

raided the

Han

Yok; and how

by

the application

of

military

I

remembered from

the

First

World War,

to lead the

Wyomings

to victory over

the

Hudson River

tribe which

had formed

a

tr

liance

with

the

hereditary

enemies

and

oppres

White Race

in

America.

By die Spring of 2420

A.D.,

a

short

six mo

these

events,

the positions

of the Yellow

and

Races

in America had been

reversed.

The h

now

the

hunters.

The

Hans

desperately

we

ing the

defenses

of their

fifteen

cities, arou

which the American

Gangs

had drawn a

ployed line of

long-gunners

;

while

nervous

a

closely bunched

behind their protective

scr

integrator beams, kept

up

sporadic

and coJt

of transportation between

the cities.

During this period

our OM'n

campaign





1108

AMAZING STORIES

strayed the

air

and

maintained

a constant

vacuum

wherever they

played,

into

which

the surrounding

air

continuously

rushed,

naturally creating

atmospheric dis-

turbances

after

a

time,

which

resulted

in

a

local storm.

This,

however, ceased

after

a

number of

'hours,

when

the flow

of

air

toward

the

city

became

steady.

The Hans

suffered

severely from atmospheric

con-

ditions

inside their city

at

first, but later

rearranged

their

disintegrator ring in

a

system

of overlapping

films

that

left

diagonal

openings,

through

which

the air

rushed

to

them,

and

through

which

their

ships

emerged

to

scout our

positions.

We

shot

down seven

of

their cruisers

before

they

realized

the

folly of floating

individually

over

our in-

visible line. Their

beams traced paths

of destruction

like scars

across

the countryside,

but

caught less than

half

a

dozen

of

our gunners

alt told, for

it

takes

a

lot

of

time

to sweep every

square foot

of a square

mile

with

a

beam

whose cross

section

is

not

more than

twenty

or

twemy-five

feet in diameter.

Our gunners,

com-

pletely

concealed

beneath [he foliage

oE

the forest,

with

weapons

which did not

reveal their

position,

as did the

flashes

and

detonation

of the

twentieth

century

artillery,

hit their repeller

rays

with comparative

ease.

The drop

ships,

which

the

Hans

next

sent

out,

were harder

to

handle.

Rising

to

immense

heights

be-

We Wyomings

possessed

one swooper

compl

sheathed with

inertron

and

counter

weighted

with

u

The Altoonas

and the Lycomings

also

had

one

a

But

a

shielded

swooper, while

impervious

to

the

ray, was

helpless

against

squadrons

of

Han

aircraf

the Hans

developed

a technique

of playing

their

underneath

the swooper

in

such

fashion

as to

s

down flutteringly

into

the vacuum

so created,

they brought

it finally,

and

more or

less violent

earth.

Ultimately

the Hans

broke

our

blockade

to

tain

extent,

when

they resumed

traffic

between

cities

in

great

convoys,

protected

by

squadrons

of

ers in

vertical

formation,

playing

a continuous

fire

of

disintegrator

beams

ahead

of them

and do

the sides

in

a

most

effective

screen,

so that

it

was

difficult

for

us

to

get

a

rocket

through

to

the

re

rays.

But

we

lined

the

scar

paths

beneath their

air

for miles

at

a

stretch

with

concealed

gunners,

so

whom

would sooner

or

later

register

hits,

and

seldom

that

a

convoy

made

the

trip

between

Nu

and

Boss-Tan,

Bah-

Flo,

Si-ka-ga

or Ah-Ia-nah

out

losing

several

of its

ships.

Hans

who

reached

the ground

alive were

never

prisoner.

Not

even

the

splendid

discipline

of the



THE

AIRLORDS

OF

HAN

Gangs, which

occupied

the Blue Mountain section North

o£

Delaware Water

Gap. We

had

not

invited their

cooperation

in

this

campaign,

for

they were under

some

suspicion

of

having trafficked

with-

the

Hans

in past

years,

but they had

offered

no

objection to

our passage

through

their

territory

in

our advance

on

Nu-Yok.

Fortunately our contact

guard

had been able to

leap

into

the

upper

branches

of

a

tree

without

being

dis-

covered

by the

Bad Bloods, for their discipline was lax

and

their

guard

careless. She

overheard

enough of the

conversation

of

their

Bosses around the camp fire be-

neath her

to

indicate

the general nature

of

the

Han

plans.

After several hours

she

was

able to leap away un-

observed

through

the

topmost

branches of

the

trees,

and after

putting

several miles between

herself

and

their camp, she

ultrophoned

a

full report to her

Con-

tact

Boss back

in the

Wyoming Valley. My

own

Ultrophone

Field

Boss

picked'

up

the

message

and

brought

the

graph

record of it

to

me

at

once.

Her report

was

likewise

picked up by

the

Bosses

of

the

various Gang

units

in

our

line, and we

had

called

a

council

to discuss

our

plans

by

word of

mouth.

We

were

gathered-irl

a

sheltered

glade

on

the

Eastern

slope of

First

Mountain on

a

balmy

night

in May.

Far

to the

East,

across the forested slopes of the lowlands,

the

flat

stretches

of

open meadow and the rocky

ridge

that

once had

been

Jersey

City,

the

irridescent

glow

of

of

the

ancient Romans, but much

larger, and

ca

of concealing their bearers from head

to foot

they

crouched slightly. These

shields,

of

course,

colored

forest

green,

and

were irregularly

shaded

were

balanced

with inertron,

so that their'

eff

weight

was

only

a

few

ounces.

They

were

curiou

in

that they

had handles for

both

hands,

and two

reservoir

rocketgiins

built

into

them

as

integral

In

going

into

action, the Susquannas- cro

slightly, holding

the

shields

before them

with

hands, looking

through a

narrow

vision slit,

and

ing

both

rocket

guns.

The

shields, however, w

great handicap in leaping, and

in

advancing th

heavy

forest

growth.

The

field

unit of the

Delawares

was

also

he

armored. It

was one

of

the most

efficient

bodi

shock

troops

in

our entire

line.

They carried

ci

shields,

about three feet in diameter,

with

a

slit

and a small rocket

gun.

These

shields were h

arm's length in

the

left

hand

on

going into

action

the right

hand

was

carried

an

ax-gun,

an

affai

unlike the

battle-ax

of

the Middle

Ages.

It was

three feet long. The

shaft

consisted

of a

rocket

with

an

ax-blade near

the muzzle,

and

a

spike

a

other

end.

It

was a

terrible

weapon.

Jointed

guards protected

the ax-gunner below the rim

o

shield,

and

a hemispherical

helmet,

the front

sect

which

was of transparent

ultron reaching

down



1110 AMAZING STORIES

be

in

a

better

position than anyone, Rogers, with

your

memories

of the

Twentieth Century,

to

appreciate

that

between the

.superdendliness

of the rocket gun and of

the

disintegrator

ray

there

will never

be

any

opportuni-

ty

for hand-to-hand work. Long

before

the

opposing

forces

could

come

to grips,

one pr

the other

will be

wiped

out

But

I only smiled, for I remembered how much

of

this

same

talk there

was five centuries ago,

and that

it

was even predicted

in

1914 that no war could last

more

than

six months.

That

there would

be hand

to

hand

work

before

we

were

through,

and

in

plenty, I was convinced, and

so

every able-bodied youth I could muster was enrolled

in

my

infantry battalion

and spent most

of his time in

vigorous

bayonet practice. And

for the

same

reason

I had discarded the idea

of

armor.

I

felt it would

be

clumsy, and questioned

its value. True,

it

was an

abso-

lute bar

against

the

disintegrator

ray, but of what use

would

that

be if

a

Han

ray

found

a

crevice between

overlapping

plates, or if the ray

was

used

to annihilate

the very earth beneath the wearer's feet?

The

only

protective

equipment

that

I

thought

was

worth

a whoop

was a

very peculiar

device

with

which

a contingent of five

hundred

Altoonas was supplied.

They called it

the

umbra-shield.

It

was

a

bell-

shaped aflair

of inertron,

counterweighted with ultron,

ray

canopy

that

was

operated from

a short

mas

spread down around

it as

a cone.*

These ships were merely

adaptations of thei

ships,

and were

designed

to

travel but

a

fe

above the ground. Their

repellcr

rays

were rel

weak;

just strong

enough to lift

them

about

twelve feet from

the surface. Hence they

would

but lightly upon

the power broadcast

from th

and

great

numbers

of them could he

used.

A

ray

at

the

stern propelled

them, and

an extra-li

in

the

bow enabled them to nose up over

groun

stacles.

.

Their

most

formidable

feature

was

the

shaped

canopy

of

short

range disintegrator-

r

signed

to

spread

down around

them

from a

c

generator

at

the tip of

a

twenty-foot

mast

ami

This would annihilate

any

projectile

shot at it, fo

naturally

could

not

reach the ship

without p

through the cone

of

rays.

It was instantly

obvious

that

the

ground

would prove

to

be.

the

tanks

of

the

twenty

century,

and with

due allowance

for

the

fact

tha

were protected with

a

sheathing

of

annihilatin

instead

of

with

steel,

that

they

would

have

abo

same handicaps and advantages

as

tanks,

excep

since

they

would

float

lightly on short repeller

they could hardly

resort

to

the

destructive

cr

tactics

of

the tanks

of

the

First

World

War.

THE

AIRLORDS

OF

HAN



She

rear

of the

fighting

front

in

a deep ravine.

There,

in quarters cut far

below

the surface,

he

Would

observe every

detail

of the

battle

on

the

won-

derful system of viewplates

our

ultrono

engineers

had

constructed

through

a series of relays

from

ultroscope

observation

posts

and

individual

cammermen.

Two hours before

dawn

our long distance

scopemen

reported a squadron

of ground

ships

leaving

the

enemy's

disintegrator

wall, and

heading

rapidly

some-

what

to the

south

of

us, toward

the site of the ancient

city of

Newark.

The

ultroscopes could

detect no

canopy

operation. This

in

itself

was

not

significant,

for

&ey were

penetrating

hills

in their lines

of

vision,

most

of

diem, which of course blurred their

pictures

to

a

Slight extent. But by

now

we

had

a

well

-equipped

eiectrono

scope division, with

instruments

nearly

equal

io

Uiose

of

the

Hans

themselves

;

and

these

could de-

tect

no evidence of

dis

rays

in operation.

Handan

appreciated

our opportunity

instantly, for

no sooner had the import of the message

on

the

Rosses'

channel

become clear than

we

heard his

personal

com-

mand snapped out over

the

long-gunners'

general

chan-

nel.

Nine

hundred and seventy long-gunners nn

the

south

and west sides of the

city,

concealed

in

the dark fast-

cesses

of

the forests and hillsides,

leaped to their guns,

switched on their dial

lights,

and

flipped

the little

lever

forest.

In

my ears

sounded

the ultrophone

i

tions

of

my executives

to

tire

long-gunners

in

the

and one

by

one

I

heard the girls

report

their ra

tirement with

their guns and

other

inertr

on

-li

equipment,

I located several

of

them

with my

with

which

I

could,

of

course,

focus

through

th

screen

above them,

and noted with satisfaction

t

hurried

speed

of

their movements.

On ploughed

the Han

wedge, while

my

girls

sep

before

it

and retired

to the sides.

With

a

rapidity

greater

than

that

of

the ships

themselves, the

penetrated

deeper

and

deeper

into

the forest,

p

continuously

in

the

same

direction,

literally

meltin

way

through,

as a stream of

hot

water

might m

way

through

a snow bank.

Then

a

curious thing

happened.

One of the

near

one

wing

of the

wedge must

have passed ov

usually

soft

ground, or

perhaps

some

irregularity

control

of

its canopy

generator

caused

it to dig

into the earth

ahead of it, far it

gave a sudden

ward lurch,

and on coming

up

out

of

it,

swerved

a

one side, its offense

beam slicing

full into

th

echeloned

to

the

left

ahead

of

it.

That

ship,

all

few plates

on one side, instantly

vanished

from

But

the

squadron could

not

stop. As soon

as

stood still, its

canopy ray playing

continuously

spot, the

ground around

it

was

annihilated to

1112

AMAZING STORIES



rays

played, not daring to shut off these active

rays.

One overturned.

Our observers reported

it. The

result

was

a

hail

of rocket

shells directly on the

squad-

ron. These

could

not

penetrate the

canopies

of

the

other ships, but

the

one

which

had

turned

turtle was

blown

to

fragments.

The

squadron

attempted

to

change its

course

and

dodge the

barrier in front of

it.

But

a

new barrier of

blazing

detonations and churned earth

appeared

on its

flanks. In

a

matter

of

minutes it

was

ringed

around,

thanks to

the

skill

of

our fire

control.

One

by

one

the wallowing ships

plunged,

into holes

from

which

'they

.could not

extricate

themselves.

-One

by one

their

canopy rays

were

shut off,

op the

ships

somersaulted

off

the

knolls

on

which

they

perched,

as

fheir

canopies melted the ground away

from

around

them. So

one

by

one

they were destroyed.

Thus the

second

ground

sortie of the Hans

was

an-

nihilated.

CHAPTER IV

Han

Electrono-Ray

Science

AT

this period

the Hans of

Nu-Yok

had

only

one

airship

equipped

with

their

uew

armored

repetler

h

ray,, their

latest

defense against

our

tactics

of

shooting

rockets htto

the

repeller rays

and

letting

the

latter hurl them

up

against

the ships. They

had

de-

veloped a

new

steel alloy

of

-

tremendous strength,

which

Han

ship,

focussing

through

to

a

view

of its in

Much

as

I

had

imbibed

of

this

generation's hatr

the

Hans,

I was

forced

to

admire

them for th

pleteness

and efficiency

of this marvelous

cr

theirs.

Constantly twirling the

controls of my scope t

the

focus,

I

examined

its

interior from nose

to

s

IT

may

be

of

interest

at this

-

point

to

give

the

a

layman's explanation

of the

electronic or ion

chinery

of these

ships,

and

of their

general

constr

for today the

general public

knows little

of

the

p

lar application

of the electronic

laws

which the

used,

although the

practical

application

of ultron

well understood.

Back in the

Twentieth

Century

I

had, like l

millions

of

others, dabbled

a

bit

in

radio

called it

then

;

the science of the

Hans was

sim

superdevelopment

of electricity,

radio,

and

casting.

It must

be

understood that this

explanation

o

is

not technically

accurate,,

but

only

what

mi

termed

an illustrative

approximation.

The

Hans

power-stations

used

to

broadcast

distinct

powers

simultaneously.

Our

engineers

them

the

starter,

the

pullee

and the

sub-disi

tor

The last named

had

nothing

to

do

wi

operation

of the ships,

but

was exclusively

the pow

THE

AIRLORDS

OF

HAN 1



along

the

violet

ray beam

against the

rep

ray

generator

and against the two

synchronizers

at the power

plant.

This push developed

molecularly from the

earth-

mass-resultant to the

generator

;

and

at

the same

frac-

tional

distance

from the rep

ray

generator to the power

plant.

The force exerted

upward

against the

ship

was,

of

course,

highly

concentrated,

being

confined

to

the

path

of the

ultraviolet beam.

Air

or

any

material

substance,

coming within

the indicated

section of

the

beam,

was

thrown

violently upward. The

ships

actually

rode

on

columns of

air,

thus forcefully

upthrown.

Their home

berths

and

stations were constructed

with air pits

beneath.

When

they rose

from ordinary

grpund

in

open country,

there

was

a

vast

upheaval

of earth be-

neath

their

generators

at

the instant of

take-off,

but

this, of

course^ ceased

as

they got

well

above

ground

level.'

Equal pressure

to

the

lifting power of the

generator

was

exerted against the

synchronizers at

the

power

plant, but this force, not

being

concentrated directionally

along

an

ultraviolet

beam,

involved

a

practical problem

only

at

points

relatively close

to

the

synchronizers.

.Of course

the

synchronizers were

automatically

con-

trolled by

the operation of the generators, and only

the

two

were needed

for any number

of

ships' draw-

ing

power- from the station, providing

then-

protection

was rugged

enough

to stand the

strain.

Actually,

they

were

isolated

in

vast spherical steel

mental

laws underlying

these

successive orders ar

radically

dissimilar.

And

as

they

progressed,

the

veloped

constructive as well as

destructive prac

Hence the

great,triumphs

of

ultron and

inertron,

two

wonderful

synthetic

elements,

built up from s

balanced,

and

su'b-balanced ultronic

whorls,

throug

sub-electronic order into the

atomic and

molecular.

Hence

also,

come

our

relatively

simple and

beauti

efficient ultrophpnes

and

ultroscopes, which in

phonic and

visual operation penetrate obstacles

of

terial,

electronic and sub-electronic nature

withou

or hindrance,

and

with the consumption

of bu

finitesimal power.

Static

disturbance, I should

explain,

is

negligib

the

sub-electronic order,

and

non-existent in

th

tronic.

The pioneer expeditions of

our

engineers int

ultronic

order,

I

am toldj necessitated the

use

of

elaborate, complicated

and delicate

apparatus,

as w

'

the

expenditure of most costly

power,

but

once

e

lished there,

all

necessary

power

is

developed

simply from

tiny

batteries

composed

of

thin

plat

metultron

and katultron. These two siibstances, d

oped synthetically in

much

the same

manner

as

ord

ultron,

exhibit dual

phenomena

which

for

sake of

.tration

I

may compare with

certain

of the

pheno

of radioactivity. As

radium is constantly givin

electronic emanations and changing

its

atomic

s

ture

thereby, so katultron

is

constantly

giving

of

1114

AMAZING

STORIES

;;



used;

both

the

foco

batteries and broadcast'

batteries.

Foco

datteries are

twin batteries,

arranged

to shoot

a

positive and a

negative beam

in

the same direction.

When

these beams

are

made

intermittent

at light

fre-

quencies (though they are not light waves, nor of the

same

order

as

light waves) and are brought together,

or

focussed,

at

a

given

spot,

the space in

which

they

cross radiates

alternating ultronic current

in every

di-

rection. This radiated ultralight acts like true

light

so

long as the crossing beams vibrate

at

light

frequencies,

except in

three

respects

; first, it

is not visible to

the

eye

second, its color

is

exclusively

dependent

on

the

fre-

quency

of

the

foco

beams,

which determine the fre-

quency

of the

alternating

radiation.

Material

surfaces,

it would appear, reflect them all

in equal value,

and

the

color of the resultant

picture depends on

the color of the

foco frequencies. By altering these, a

reddish, yellow-

ish or bluish

picture may

be seen. In actual practice

an

orthochromatic mixture

of

frequencies

is

used

to

give

a

black,

gray

and white picture. The

third

dif-

ference is this ;

rays pulsating

in

line

toward

any

ultron

object

connected

with

the

rear-

plates

of the

twin

bat-

teries

through

rectifiers

cannot

he

reflected

by

ma-

terial

objects,

for

it

appears

they

are subject

to a

kind

of- pull

which

draws them straight

through

material

objects, which

in

a sense are

magnetized

and

while in

ceiving

battery

has

a

core pole of katultron

and

shell of

metultron. The receiving battery, of

picks

up

all

frequencies,

the undesired

ones bei

out in

detection.

Tuning, however,

is only a convenience for

and

elimination

of

interference

in ultrophonic c

cation. It

is

not involved as a

necessity,

for

currents may be broadcast at voice control

quencies,

directly and

without any

carrier

wav

To use plate batteries

or

single

center-line

for

phonic communication would require

absol

curate directional aligning

of

sender

and re

very great practical

difficulty,

except when

se

receiver

are

relatively

close

and

mutually

visib

This, however, is the

regular

system

use

Inter-Gang

network.

for

official

communicatio

senders

and

receivers

used in this system are

with the greatest

difficulty, and

by

the aid

finest laboratory

apparatus, but once set,

they

manently

locked in position

at

the

stations,

and

earthquakes

or

insecure foundations,

need

no

su

adjustment.

Accuracy

of alignment-

permits

be

no

thicker

than the

old lead

pencils

I

used

to u

Twentieth

Century.

The non-interference of such communicati

and

the difficulty of cutting in

on them

from

a

THE

AIRLORDS

OF HAN



mise

between a true streamline design

and a

flattened

cylinder.

For

a

distance of

probably

75

to 100 feet

back

of

the nose

there

were no decks except

that

formed

by

the bottom

of the

hull.

But

from

this

point

back

the

decks ran to

within

a few feet of the stern.

At

various

spots

on

the

hull

curvature

in

this

great

hollow nose were platforms from

which

the

crews

of

the

dis ray generators

and the

elecironoscope and

elec-

tronophone

devices

manipulated

their apparatus.

Into

this

space from the forward

end of the center

deck, projected the control

room.

The

walls,

ceiling

and

floor

of

this

compartment

were

simply

the

surfaces

of

viewplates.

There were no windows or

other open-

ings.

*The

operation

officers

within

the

control

room,

so

far

as their vision was

concerned,

might

have imagined

themselves suspended

in

space, except

for

the trans-

mitters, levers

and

other signalling devices

around

them.

Five

officers,

I

understand,

had

their

posts in the

control room;

the

captain,

and

the chiefs of

scopes,

phones,

dis rays and navigation. Each

of these

was

in

continuous

interphone communication with

his subordi-

nates

in other

posts

throughout

the ship.

Each

view-

plate had its

phone

connecting

with

its

eye machines

on the

hull,

the

crews of which would switch

from

telescopic

to

normal

view at

command.

There

were, of

course,

many other

viewplates

at

ex-

they gazed

at their

viewplates,

and

manipulate

little sets

of

controls placed convenient

to their h

THE

picture was

a comic

one to me , and I lau

wondering

how

such

soft

creatures

had- hel

sturdy

and

virile

American race

in

complete subj

for

centuries.

But

my

laugh

died

as

my

mind

gr

at

the

obvious explanation. These Hans were

soft

physically.

Mentally they

were

hard

and

hel

efficient

;

ruthless,

relentless and

conscienceless.

Impulsively

I

nosed

my

swooper

down

towar

ship and shot

toward it at

full rocket

power.

acted

so

swiftly

that

I had covered nearly

half

th

tance toward

the

ship before

my

mind slowly drift

of the daze

of

my emotion. This proved my und

Their

scopeman

saw

me

too

quickly,

for

in

he

directly

at

them I became easily

visible,

appearin

steady,

expanding

point.

Looking through their

I

saw

the

crew

of

a

dis

ray

generator come sud

to

attention.

A

second

later their beam engulfed

For

an instant my heart

stood still, But

the in

shell

of my swooper was

impervious

to

the

disinte

ray.

-I

was out of

luck,

however, so

far

as

my c

over

my tiny

ship

was concerned.

I had

been

hu

in

a

direct

line

toward

the ship

when

the

beam

me. Now, when I tried

to swerve

out of

the

beam

swooper responded

but sluggishly

to

the

shift

I ma

the

rocket

angle. I

was, of course,

traveling

st

down

a

beam

of

vacuum.

As my craft slowly



1116

AMAZING STORIES

and my

impulsive

action. An experienced pilot

of

the

present age would have

known better

than to be caught

shooting

straight down a dis ray

beam. He would have

kept

his

ship shooting

constantly at

some angle

to

it,

so that

his momentum would

carry him across

it it

he

hit

it.

Too

late

I

realized that

there

was

more

to

the

business of air

lighting, than instinctive skill in

guiding

a

swooper.

At last, when for a fraction of

a

second

my nose

pointed

toward the Hans, I

pressed

the

button of my

rocket

gun.

I registered

a

hit, but not

an

accurate

one.

My

projectile grazed an

upper

section

of

the

ship's hull.

At

that

it did

terrific damage.

The explosion

battered

in

a

section

about fifty feet

in

diameter,

partially detrey-

ing

the top

deck.

At

the same

instant I

had shot

my

rocket,

I had,

in

a

desperate

attempt to

escape that

turmoil of

tumbling

air,

released

a

catch and

dropped

all

that it

was

possible

to drop

of

my

ultron ballast.

My swooper shot

up-

ward,

like a bubble streaking

for the surface of

water.

I was

free of the trap in

which

I had

been

caught,

but

unable

to

take

advantage

of the

confusion which

reigned

on

the Han ship.

I was

as

helpless to maneuver my

ship

now,

-in

its

up-fush,

as

when

I

had been tumbling

in the

air

pockets.

Moreover I

was badly

battered

from

plunging

around

in my

shell like

a

pellet in a box, and

partially

uncon-

grooved

and

riveted

together, since the substan

impervious

to

heat and could not be welded).

D

ately I sawed, hammered and chiseled, until at la

a wrench and a

snap, the

plate

broke

away.

-

The released nose of the

ship

shot upward.

rest

began

to

drop

with

me.

How

fast

I

dro

do not know,

for

my

instruments

went with th

Half fainting, I grimly clenched the rubber ho

tween my

teeth, while the little compressor

on

nobly,

despite the wrecked condition of th

giving

me just

enough air to

keep

my lungs

collapsing.

At last

I

shot

through

a cloud

layer,

and

time

afterward,

it

seemed, another.

From

the

which they

flashed up

to

meet

me

and

to

appea

above me, I

must have

been dropping

like

a

ston

At

last

I

tried

the

rocket

motor,

very

gen

check

my fall. The swooper was, of course, dr

tail

first, and

I

hati

to be

careful

lest it

turn ov

a

sharp blast from

the

motor, and dump me out.

Passing

through

the

third

layer of clouds I s

earth beneath

me.

Then I jumped, pulling

mys

through

the jagged

opening,

and leaping upwar

the

remains of

my

ship shot away below

me.

On

approaching

the

ground I

opened my

chut

to

further check

mj

fall,

and landed

lightly,

w

further mishap.

Whereupon I promptly

threw

THE

AIRLORDS

OF HAN

1



as

men will, no

matter

how

healthy,

when they

are

=tota ly unaccustomed

to

physical

effort.

At length the

party

halted for

a

rest. I observed.

fihem

curiously.

Except

for a

few brief

exciting mo-

,

merits at

the

time

of

our

air

raid

on

the intelligence

office in

Nu-Yok,

I

had seen no

living specimens of

this

J

>

yellow race at

close

quarters-.

;:

They

looked

little like the Mongolians of the Twen-

tieth

Century,

except

for their slant eyes and round

.heads. The

characteristic of the high cheek bones

ap-

peared

to

have

been

bred

out

of them,

as

were

those

of

the relatively short legs

and

the muddy

yellow skin.

To

f

call them yellow was

more

figurative

than

literal.

Their

j

skins

were whiter than

those of

our

own

weather-tanned

.forest men.

Nevertheless,

their

pigmentation

was

pecul-

\

iar, and

what

there

was

of it looked

more

like a paie

-

orange tint than the ruddiness of the Caucasian.

They

were well

formed,

but

rather undersized arid soft look-

,ing_.

small muscled and

smooth

-skinned, like

young girls.

:

Their features

were

finely

chiseled,

eyes

beady,

and nose

slightly

aquiline.

They

were uniformed,

not in

close-fitting

green

or

[

other

shades

of

protective coloring,

such

as the

unob-

-.

trusive

gray

of

the

Jersey

Beaches or the deadened

rus-

.

set of the

autumn

uniforms of pur people. Instead

T

.

they wore loose

fitting

jackets

of

some

silky

material,

'

and

loose

knee

pants.

This

particular

command had

been

equipped with

form

moulded boots of

some

soft

San-Lan,

he

replied, misbegotten

spawn

of

late

High Priestess

Nlui-Mok,

arid now Most

Glor

'Air

Lord

of

All the

Hans,

He rolled

out these

with

a bow of

exaggerated

respect toward the

W

and in a tone of

mockery. Those of

his

men who

near

enough

to hear,

snickered

and

giggled.

I

was

to learn that

this

amazing

attitude

of

his

typical

rather than exceptional. Strange as it

seem,

no

Han

rendered

any respect to another,

expected it in

return

;

that is,

not

genuine

respect.

T

discipline

was

rigid and

cold-bloodedly

heartless.

most elaborate

courtesies

were

demanded and

acco

among

equals and from inferiors

to

superiors,

but

was the intelligence and moral

degradation of thi

markable

race,

that

every

one

of them recognized

courtesies for

what

they

were;

they

must

of

nece

have been hollow mockeries.

They

took

pleasu

forcing one

another to

go

through with them, each

ing

to outdo

the

other in cynical,

sardonic thr

clothed

in the most

meticulously

ceremonious cour

As

a

matter- of fact,

my captor, by

this

crude

refe

to

tire

origin of his ruler, was

merely proving

hims

crude

fel-low, guilty of a vulgarity

rather than

treasonable or disrespectful

remark.

An

offic

higher rank and

better

breeding,

would have

man

a

clever

innuendo,

less

direct,

but

equally

plain.

I

was

about to

ask

him what part of 'the countr

were in

and where I was to

be

taken, when

one o

men came

running

to

him

with a

little

portable el

1118

AMAZING

STORIES



there unfolded

in one of the viewplates

in

my

cabin

a glorious

view of Lo-Tan,

the

Magnificent,

a

fairy

city

of glistening glass spires

and irridescent colors,'

piled up on

sheer

walls

of

brilliant blue, on the very

tip of

this

peak.

Nor

was

there

any

sheen

of

shimmering

disintegrator

rays

surrounding

it,

to

interfere

with the

sparkling

sight.

So

far-flung

were

the

defenses of Lo Tan, I

found,

that it

was considered

impossible for

an

Ameri-

can

rocket

gunner

to

get

within

effective range, and

so

numerous

were the dis ray

batteries

on the mountain

peaks

and

in

the

ravines, in this

encircling line of

de-

fenses,

drawn on a

radius of

no less

than

100

miles,

that

even

the largest

of our inertron

sheathed

aircraft,

in

the opinion

of

the

Hans, could easily be

brought

to

earth

through air-pocketing

tactics.

And this, I was

the

more

ready

to believe after

my

own recent

ex-

perience.

I

spent

two months

as

a

prisoner

in Lo-Tan,

I

can

honestly

say

that during

that entire

time every

atten-

tion

was

paid to

my

physical

comfort. Luxuries

were

showered upon

me.

But I

was

almost

continuously

subjected

to

some form

of

mental

torture

or

moral

assault. Most

elaborately

staged

attempts

at seduction

were made upon

me

with

drugs, with

women.

Hypno-

tism

was

resorted to. Viewplates were faked to picture

to

me the complete rout of

American

forces

all

over

tieth Century, and not

the Twenty-fifth.

Had

th

so, it might have made

a

difference.

I

have

no

that

some

of

their

most subtle

mental

assaults

fire

because of my

own Twentieth

Century

ness.

Their

hypnotists inflicted

many horrifying

mares

on

me,

and

made

me

do

and

say

many

thin

I would not

have

done in my right senses. Bu

in

the Twentieth Century we

had learned

that hyp

cannot make

a

person violate

his

fundamental c

of

morality

against his will,

and

steadfastly

I

ste

will

against them.

I

have

since

thought

that

I was greatly

aided

newness

to

this

age.

I have

never, as

a

matter

become

entirely

attuned

to

it.

And

even

today

fess to a

longing wish

that man

might

travel

ba

as well as forward

in

time. Now that

my

Wil

been

at

rest these

many years,

I wish

that

I

mi

back to the

year

1927, and take

up my

old

life

w

left it

off,

in the

abandoned

mine

near Scranton,

And

at

the

period

of which

I

speak,

I

was

tuned

than

now to

the modern world.

Real

as

was,

and

my

love

for my wife,

there

was much

all

that

was

like

a dream,

and

in

the

midst

of

tures

by

the Hans,

this

complex

—

this

habit o

months—helped

me

to

tell

myself

that

this,

too,

a dream,

that I

must

not succumb, for I would

w

in a

moment.

THE AIRLORDS

OF

HAN



teen so

degraded

and suppressed in

this

vicious Han

civilisation

as

to be

unrecognizable.

Naturally

San-

.Lrn could

not

understand

the nature of

my

pity

For

this

poor

child, nor the

fact that

it

might

have

proved

a

weak

spot

in

my armor. But had

he dime so,

I

truly

believe

;he

would

have

been

ready

to

inflict

degradation, torture

and

even

death upon her, to make me surrender the in-

:

formation

he wanted.

Yet this

man,

perverted

product of

a

morally

de-

graded

race,

had

about

him something

of

true dignity;

something of sincerity,

in

a

warped,

twisted

way.

. There were

times

when

he seemed

to

sense

vaguely,

gropingly, wonderingly, that

he

might

have

a

soul.

The Han philosophy for centuries

had

not admitted

(he

existence

of

souls.

Its

conception

embraced

noth-

ing

but

electrons,

protons

and

molecules,

and

still

was

struggling

desperately

for

some shred of evidence that

thoughts, will power

and

consciousness of self

were

nothing but chemical

reactions.

However, it had gotten

no further than the negative

knowledge

we had

in

the

Twentieth Century,

that

a

sick

body

dulls

consciousness

uf the material

world,

and that knowledge,

which

all

mankind

has

had from the

beginning

of

time,

that a

dead

body

means

a departed

consciousness.

They had

i

succeeded

in

producing,

by synthesis,

what appeared to

,

be living

tissues,

and

even

animals

of

moderately

com-

.

plex structure

and

rudimentary brains,

but they

could

brain, and

struggles through

to his

grave, with

or

less

beclouded

understanding,

and with distin

tations

to what

we used

to

call his

think tank,

This particular

reflection

of

mine

proved unp

with

them,

for it

stabbed

their

vanity, and

neit

prestige nor

the

novelty

of

the

idea was

sufficien

These

Hans

for centuries

had

believed

and

their children that they were a

super-race,

a race

tiny.

Destined

to Whom,

for

What,

was not

s

to

them;

but

nevertheless

destined

to

elevate h

ity to

some

sort

of

super

-plane. Yet through thes

centuries they had

been

busily

engaged

in

the

ext

ation

of

weaklings,

whom, by

their very

persec

they had

turned

into super men,

now

rising in

wrath

to

destroy

them

;

and

in

reducing themse

the

depths of

softening

vice and

flabby moral

fi

it

strange

that they

looked at

me

in amazed

when

I laughed outright

in the

midst

of some

o

most serious speculations

?

Chapter

ix

The

Fall

of

Nu-Yok

MY

position

among

the Hans,

in

this

perio

a peculiar one. I

was

at

once

a

closely

g

prisoner

and an

honored

guest,

San-La

me

frankly

that I

would

remain the latter only




Heaven-Born, the

Nu-Yok fleet has

been destroyed,

the

city

is

in ruins,

and the newly

formed

ground

brigades,

reduced to

10,000 men,

have taken

refuge

in

the hills of Ron-Dak (the Adirondacks) where they

are being pressed hard

by

the tribesmen, who have

surrounded them.

For

_

an instant

San-Lan

sat

as

though

paralyzed.

Then he leaped

to his

feet,

facing

the

viewplate.

Let

me see you

he snarled. Instantly the

moun-

tain view

disappeared

and the Intelligence Officer ap-

peared again, this

time

looking*

a

little

frightened.

Where is Lui-Lok? he shouted. Cut

him in

on

my North plate. The commander who loses his city

dies

by

torture. Cut him in. Cut him

in

Heaven-

Born,

Lui-Luk

committed

suicide.

He

leaped

into

a

ray,

when

rockets

of

the

tribesmen

began

to

penetrate the ray-wall.

Lip-Hung

is

in command

of

the

survivors.

We

have just

had a message

from him.

We

could

not

understand

all of it.

Reception

was

very

weak because he is operating with emergency apparatus

on Bah-Flo power. The

Nu-Yok

power

broadcast

plant

has

been

blown up.

Lip-Hung

begs for

a

rescue

fleet.

San-Lan,

his expression momentarily

becoming more

vicious, now was striding

up

and

down

the room,

while

the poor wretch

in

the viewplate,

thoroughly

scared

at

last, stood trembling.

m

What

shrieked

the tyrant. He begs

a

rescue. A

the

forest which covers

the rains

of the

civiliz

stroyed by

your

ancestors.

Ye have

sown

des

Ye

shall

reap it

.,

i

Your

ancestors

thought

they had

anade

me

of the American

race.

Physically

you did red

to the state of beasts.

But

men

do have souls,

and in their souls

the

Americans

still cheri

spark of

manhood,

of

honor,

of independence

the Hans have

degenerated into

a race

of sle

pered

beasts themselves, they have unwittingl

race

of super-men out of those

they

sought

animals.

You have bred

your own

destructi

cities

shall

be blasted from

their foundations.

fleets

shall

be

brought

crashing

to

earth. You h

choice of

dying

in the

wreckage,

or

of

fleei

forests, there

to

be

hunted

down and

kille

have sought

to

destroy us

And

the ruler of

all

the Hans shrank back

outstretched finger

as though it had been in

finger of doom.

But

only for

a

moment.

Suddenly

he sna

crouched

as

though

to

spring

at me with his

ba

By

a

mighty

convulsion

of the

will he

regaine

of

himself,

however,

and assumed a

manner

dignity.

He

even

smiled—

a.

slow, crooked sm

No,

he said,

answering

his own

thought.

not

have

you

killed now. You

shall

live

on,

THE

AIRLORDS

OF

HAN



virtual curtain

of

destruction.

It seared

a

scarpath

a

mile

and

a

half wide fifteen miles

into

our territory.

Everyone

of our rocket gunners caught in this sec-

tion

was

annihilated.

Altogether

we

lost

several

hun-

dred

men

and girls.

Gunners

to

each

side

of the raiding ships kept up a

continuous

fire on them. Most

of

the

rockets

were dis-

integrated, for Handan

would

not

permit

the use of the

inertron

rockets against the

ships.

But

now

and

then

one found its way through the playing

beams,

hit

a

re-

peller

ray and was

hurled

up

against a Han

ship,

bring-

ing it crashing

down.

The orders

that Handan

barked

into

his

ultrophone

were,

of

course,

heard

by

every

long-gunner

in

the ring

of

American

forces

around

the

'city,

and

nearly all

of

them

turned their fire on

the

Han

airfleet,

with

the

exception

of

those

equipped with the

inertron rockets-

These

latter

held

to

the original target and

promptly

cut loose on the city

with

a

shower of destruction which

the disintegrator-ray

walls

could

not

stop.

The results

staggered imagination, and produced

awe even in our

own ranks.

Where

an

instant

before had stood

the

high-flung

masses and

towers

of

Nu-Yok,

gleaming red,

blue

and

gold in

the

brilliant sunlight, and

shimmering through

the

irridescence

of the ray

wall, there

was

a

seething

were not as tightly drawn

as

they

might

have be

there

was

considerable

scattering

of

both

Ameri

Han

units.

The

Hans

could make

only

the

short-range

use of their newly developed

disint

ray field units,

since

they had only distant sou

power-broadcast

on

which

to

draw.

On

the oth

the Americans

could use their

explosive

rocke

sparingly for fear of hitting one another.

So the

battle

was finished in

a

series of

de

hand to hand

encounters in the ravines and m

slopes

of the

district.

The

Mifflins

and Altoonas, themselves from

mountainous

sections, gave a splendid account o

selves

in

tliis

fighting,

leaping

to

the

craggy

slope

the

Hans,

and driving

them

down into the

where they

could safely concentrate on them

of

depressed

rocket

guns.

The

Susquannas,

with their

great

inertron

which

served

them well

against the

weak

rays

Hans, pressed forward irresistibly every

time

the

a contact with a Han unit, their

short-range

guns

sending

a

hail

of explosive destruction

them.

But

the Delawares, with their smaller

shie

ertron

leg-guards

and helmets, and

their ax-guns

faster work

of

it.

They

would

rush

the

Hans,

s

1122

AMAZING

STORIES



' household where there

is

no

semblance

of

house.

The

imperial

apartments

were

located

at

the very

summit

of

the Imperial Tower,

the

topmost

pinnacle

of the city, itself clinging

to the sides and peak

of the

highest mountain in

that section of the Rockies.

There

were

days

when

the

city

seemed to

be

built on

a

nigged

island

in

the midst of

a

sea of fleecy whiteness, for

frequently

the

cloud

level was

below the

peak,

And

on

such

days the only

visual

communication

with

the

world below

was through the

viewplates which

formed

nearly all the

interior

walls of the thousands of

apart-

ments

(for the city

was, in fact, one vast

building)

and

upon

which

the tenants

could

time in almost any views

they

wished from

an elaborate system

of public tele-

vision

and

projectoscope

broadcasts.

Every

Han

city

had

many

public-view

broadcasting

stations, operating on

tuning

ranges which did not

in-

terfere with

other

communication

systems.

For slight

additional

fees

a citizen

in

Lo-Tan might,

if

he felt so

inclined, visit

the seashore, or

the

lakes

or

the forests

of

any part

of

the country, for

when such

scene

was

thrown

on the walls

of an

apartment,

die effect was

precisely

the

same

as

if

one were

gazing

through a

vast

window

at

the

scene

itself.

It

was

possible

too,

for

a

slightly

higher fee,

to

make

a

mutual

connection

between

apartments

in

the

same

or

different cities,

so

that

a

family

in

Lo-Tan,

for

instance,

might

visit

friends in Fis-Ko {San

The women

actually

moved about through th

more

than

the

men,

for

they

had no

fixed

duties.

work was

required

of

them, and though

nominally

their

dependence

upon the government pension

for

necessities

and

on

their husbands

(of the mom

for

their luxuries, reduced them virtually

to

the

dition

of slaves.

Each

had

her

own

apartment

in the

Lower

with but a

single

small

viewplate, very limited

tation facilities,

and

a

minimum

credit

for

food

clothing. This

apartment

was

assigned

to her on

uation

from

the State School,

in

which

she

had

placed

as

an infant, and

it remained

hers

so long

a

lived,

regardless

of

whether

she

occupied

it

or no

the

conclusion

of

her

various

marriages

she

woul

turn

there, pending her endeavors

to

make

a

new

m

Naturally, as

her years

increased,

her returns be

more frequent

and her

stay of

longer

duration,

finally, abandoning

hope of making

another

match

finished

out her days

there,

usually in drunkennes

whatever

other forms

of

cheap dissipation

she

afford

on her dole, starving

herself.

Men

also

received

the same State pension, suff

for

the

necessities

but not

for

the

luxuries

of

life.

got

it

only

as

an old-age

pension,

and on applicati

When

boys

graduated from

the State School

generally

were adopted

by their

fathers and

into

the

latters*

households,

where they

enjoyed

THE AIRLORDS OP HAN



might

be delivered

in

a

man's

apartment without a

human hand

having

ever

touched it.

Having decided that

he wished a

suit

of

a

given

gen-

eral

style,

he

would

simply

tune in a visual

broadcast

of

the

display

of various selections, and

when

he

had

made

his

choice,

dial the number

of the item and press

the

order button.

Simultaneously

the charge

would be

automatically made

against

his

account number, and

credited as

a

sale on

the automatic

records of that

par-

ticular

factory in the

account

house. And

his account

plate,

hidden

behind

a little

wail door,

would register his

new

credit

balance.

An automatically packaged suit

that had been

made

to style and size-standard by'auto-

matic

machinery from synthetically produced material,

would

slip

into

the delivery

chute,

magnetically

ad-

dressed, and

in

anywhere from

a

few seconds to thirty

minutes

or

so,

according

to

the

volume of business in

the chutes, and drop into the delivery basket in

his

room,

DAILY

his wages were

credited

to his

account, and

monthly his

share of the dividends likewise (ac-

cording to his

position) from the Imperial Investment

Trust, after

deduction

of

taxes

(through

the

automatic

bookkeeping machines)

for the

support

of the

city's

pensioners

and

whatever

sum

San-Lan

himself

had

chosen

to

deduct for personal expenses and

gratuities.

A man could not

bequeath his

ownership

interest

in

which

could be

terminated on official

notice

by

party,

and that after all

it

gave

a

woman

no real

or

prerogatives that could

not be terminated

whim

of

her

husband, and

established

her as n

but

the favorite of

his

harem, if he had an

large enough

to keep

one, or

the

most

definitely a

ledged

of

his

favorites if

he

hadn't,

it

is

easy

that

no

such

thing as a real

family

life existed

them.

Free women roamed

the

corridors

of the city,

ically

importuning

marriage,

and wives

spent

m

the time they

were

not

under

their husbands' wa

eyes in

flirtatious attempts

to provide

themselve

better prospects

for

their next marriages.

Naturally

the'

biggest

problem

of the

communit

that

of

stimulating the birth

rate. The

syst

special credits to

mothers

had begun centuries

but had not been very

efficacious

until women ha

deprived of all other earning

power, and even

time

of which

I

write it was only

partially

succ

in

spite

of

the

heavy

bounties-

for

children.

It wa

ficult to make the bounties sufficiently attractive

the

women

from

their

more

remunerative

light

tions.

Eugenic

standards

also

were

a

handicap

As

a

matter of

fact,

San-Lan

had

under

c

eration a revolutionary

change

in economic and

standards,

when

the revolt of the

forest

men up

1124 AMAZING

STORIES



The

army

exercised

a

cruelty

careless and

impartial

police power over all classes,

including

the

airmen,

when

the

latter

were

in

port. But it did not dare

to

touch

the repair men,

who, so far as

I

could

ever

make

out, roamed

the

corridors of

the city

at

will

during

their

hours

off

duty,

wreaking

their

wills

on

whomever

they

met.

without let

or hindrance.

Even

a Prince

of

the Blood would

withdraw

into

a

side corridor

with

his

escort of a score of

men,

to let

one of these labor kings

pass,

rather than

risk

an

altercation

which

might result

in

trouble for

the gov-

ernment

with

the Yun-Yun,

regardless

of the rights

and wrongs

of the case,

unless

a heavy

credit

trans-

ference

was

made

from

the

balance

of the Prince to

that

of the

worker.

For

the

machinery

of

the

city

'

could

not

continue

in

operation

a

fortnight, before some

accident

requiring

delicate repair

work would put

it

partially

out of commission. And the

Yun-Yun was

quick

to

resent

anything

it

could

construe as a

slight

on

one of its members.

In the last

analysis

it was these

Yun-Yun

men,

numerically

the

smallest

of the classes, who ruled the

Han civilization,

because for

all

practical purposes

they

controlled

the

machinery on which

that

civilization

de-

pended for

its

existence.

Political )',

San-Lan could

balance

the organizations

of

the

army

and

the

air

fleets

against each other, but he

could

not

break

the grip

of the repairmen

on

the ma-

reclining

at

their ease before

viewplates

in their

ment

offices in

the city, that clung

to

the

mountain

far above.

There

were

just two restrictions

on my

freed

movement.

I

was allowed

nowhere near the

broadcasting

station

on

the peak,

nor

the

compl

of it which

was

buried three

miles

below

the ba

the mountain.

And I was

never allowed

to

app

within

a

hundred

feet

of any disintegrator ray ma

when

I

visited

the military outposts

in

the

surrou

mountains.

I

first

noticed the

escape tunnels one day w

had

descended

to

the

lowest

level of all, the

locat

the Electronic Plant, where machines,

known as

verse

disintegrators,

fed

with

earth

and

crushed

by

automatic

conveyors, subjected

this

material t

disintegrator

ray,

held the released

electrons

c

within their

magnetic fields and slowly refashioned

into

supplies

of

metals

and

other desired element

My attention was attracted

to the

tunnels

b

unusual fact that

men were busily entering

and

ing them. Almost

the entire repair force seemed

concentrated

here. Stocky, muscular men

they

with

the

same

modified

Oriental

countenances

a

rest

of the

Hans, but

with

a

certain

ruggedness

them mat was lacking

in

the rest

of the indolent

lation, They

sweated

as

they

labored

over the

struction

of

magnetic

cars

evidently

designed

to

THE AIRLORDS

OF HAN



out

the

health-giving rays

of

the

sun,

which

man needs.

Nor

San-Lan jeered. Wild

tribesmen

might

not

be

able

to,

but

we

are

a civilization.

We shall

make

our own

sunlight

to

order in

the bowels

of

the earth.

If necessary,

we

can manufacture

our air synthetically;

not

the

germ-laden

air of Nature,

but

absolutely

pure

air.

Our

underground cities will be heated

or

refriger-

ated

artificially

as conditions may

require.

-Why

should

we

not iive underground

if we

desire?

We

produce

all

our needs synthetically,

Nor will

you

be able to locate our

cities

with elec-

tronic indicators.

You see,

Rogers,

I

know

what

is

in your mind.

Our scientists

have planned carefully.

All out ma-

chinery

and

processes will

be

shielded so

that

no

elec-

tronic

disturbances

will

exist

at

the

surface.

And

then, from

our underground

cities

we

will

emerge

at

leisure

to

wage

merciless war on your

wild

men

of

the forest, until

we

have at last done

what our

forefathers should have done, exterminated

them to the

last

beast.

HE

thrust

his

jeering

face

close

to mine-.

Have

you

any

answer

to

that

?

he

demanded.

My impulse

was to plant

my fist in his

face,

for

I

could think of

no

other

answer.

But

I controlled

myself, and even forced

a

hearty laugh,

to

irritate him.

is a fine

for

telescopic views

of

one

section or

another

desk

plates, and

noting

the iittle pale

green

signal

that flashed up as Sector

Observers

called

for

tention.

Members of

Strategy Board, Base Commande

military units,

and San-Lan himself,

I

understo

at similar desks

in

their private

offices,

on whi

these

views were duplicated, and

in

constant

and visual

communication with

one another an

the

Executive

Marshal.

The particular view which

appeared on

my

ow

fortunately

showed the East

side

of the

dome

view

and in

one corner of

my picture

appeared

the

Exe

Marshal himself.

Although

I

was

getting

a

viewplate

picture of

a

plate

picture, I could

see the broad, nigged valley

East plainly, and

the

relatively

low ridge

beyond,

must have been

some thirty

miles

away.

It

was

beyond this, evidently

far

beyond i

the

scene

of the action was

located, for

nothing s

on

the

plate

but

a

misty

haze permeated

by

ind

and

continuous

pulsations of

light,

and against

the

low

mountain

ridge

stood

out

in

bold

relief.

Somewhere

on

the floor of the

Observation

ro

course, was

a

Sector

Observer

who was

looki

yond that

ridge,

probably

through

a project

station

in the second

or

third

circle,

located

pe

AMAZING

STORIES



. CHAPTER

XII

The Mysterious Air

Balls'*

THE

American

barrage

had

been

a

long distance

bombardment,

designed,

apparently, to

draw the

Han

disintegrator

ray

batteries into

operation

and so

reveal their positions

on the mountain

tops

and

slopes,

for the Hans,

after

the destruction of

Nu-Yok,

had learned

quickly that

Concealment

of

their

positions

was a better

protection

than

a

surrounding

wall of

dis-

integrator rays shooting

up into the

sky.

The Hans, however, had

failed

to reply

with disin-

tegrator rays. For

already

this arm,

which

formerly

they

had believed

invincible,

was being

restricted

to a

limited

number

of

their

military units,

and

their fac-

tories were

busy

turning

out

explosive rockets

not

dis-

similar

to

those of the

Americans

in their

motive power

and atomic

detonation.

They

had replied

with these,

shooting

them

from unrevealed

positions,

and at the

estimated positions

of the

Americans.

Since

the

Americans,

not knowing

the exact location

of

the

Han outer line, had

shot

their

barrage over it,

and

the

Hans had fired

at

unknown

American

positions,

this first exchange

of

fire

had done little more than

to

churn up vast areas of mountain

.and

valley.

The Hans appeared

to

be

elated,

to

feel

that'they

had

driven

off an American

attack.

I knew

better.

The

lens in it, floating

slowly

down the

shaft, as

tho

were some

living

creature making a

careful examin

pausing now

and then as its lens swung about

great single

eye. The

moment this eye

turned

them,

they

said,

the ball

rushed down on them,

ing

several to

death

in

its

vicious gyrations,

and

ming the mechanism

oE the

elevator,

though

fai

crash

through it.

Then, said

the

wounded surviv

floated back

up

the

shaft,

watchfully

eyeing

and slipped

off to

the

side at

the

wrecked level.

The next

night several of these air balls were

following

explosions in various towers

and

secti

the

city

roof

and walls.

In

each case

repair gangs

rushed by them,

and suffered

many casualties

the third night

a

few

of the air balls

were

destro

the

repair

men

and

guards,

who now were equippe

disintegrator pistols.

This, however,

was pretty

costly

business, for

i

case the

ray

bored

into the corridor and shaft

wal

yond its

target,

wrecking

much

machinery,

injuri

structural members

of that

section,

penetrating

ments and

taking

a

number

of lives. Moreover

air balls, being

destroyed,

could

not

be

subjec

scientific

inspection.

After this the explosions

ceased.

But for many

the

sudden

appearances

of these air balls

in th

ridors and

shafts

of the

city

caused

the greatest

THE AIRLORDS

OF HAN



much

for

my inertron

belt, that I might simply have

leaped

outward

from the edge of the

roof

some dark-

night and floated

gently

down.

I longed for

my

ultro-

phone

equipment,

with

which

I

might have

established

com

munication with

the

beleaguering American forces.

My

greatest

difficulty,

I

knew,

would

be

that

of

escaping

my

guard. Once free of them,

I

figured it

would

be

the

business

of

nobody in particular,

in

that

badly

disorganized

city,

to

recapture

me.

The knives

of the

ordinary

citizens

I

did

not

fear,

and very

few

of

the

military

guard

were

armed with disintegrator

pistols.

I was

sitting

in

my

apartment

busying

my mind with

various plans, when there occurred a

commotion

in the

city

corridor

outside my door. The Captain of

my

guard

jumped

nervously from

the couch

on

which

he

had been

reclining, and ordered

the

excited

guards

to

open

the door.

In

the

broad

1

corridor, the

remainder

of

the guard

lay

about,

dead

or

groaning,

where

they had

been

bowled over by

one

of these air

balls,

the first I

had

ever seen.

The metal

sphere

floated hesitantly above its victims,

turning this

way

and

that to

bring

its

eye

on

various

objects around, ft stopped

dead

on

sighting

the

door

the

guard

had thrown open, hesitated

a

moment,

and

then

shot suddenly into the apartment with

a

hissing

it

had about

die weight

of a

spider

web. Ul

I

suppose,

it

would have

settled to the floor. B

no

time

for

such

an idle experiment.

I

quickl

it

to

my couch,

where

I threw

a

couple

of pil

some of

the bed clothes

over

it. Then

I

thre

back

on

the

couch with

my

head

near

it.

If

guards outside

attracted

attention,

and

the Ha

entered,

I could

report

the

attack by the

air

b

claim

that

I had

been

knocked

unconscious b

One

moment,

said

the

ball, after

I

reporte

ready

to

talk.

Here is

someone

who wants

to

you. And I nearly

leaped from the

couch

when,

despite

the metallic

tone of the instrumen

ognized the

eager,

loving voice

of

my

wife,

alm

terical

in

her

own

joy at talking to

me

again.

CHAPTER XIII

.

Escape

WE

had little

time, however,

to

wast

dearments,

and

very

little

to

devote

to

ing me as

to

the

American

plans. The

thing was

that

I

report

the

Han

plans

and

res

.the

fullest of

my ability.

And for

an

hour

talked steadily, giving

an

outline

of

all

I

had

from

San-Lan

and

his

Councillors,

and partic



1128

AMAZING

STORIES

which had

invaded

the

interior of Lo-Tan

were

equipped

with speakers,

in

the

hope of finding me

and estab-

lishing

communication.

Still

others were

equipped

for

two-stage control.

That is, the

operator control

led

the

vision sphere,

and through

it

watched and

steered

an

air

toq^edo

that

travelled

ahead

of it.

The Han

airship

or

any

other

target

selected

hy

the

operator

of

such

a

combination was

doomed. There

was

no escape.

The spheres and torpedoes

were

too

small

to be

hit.

They

could travel with the speed of

bullets.

They

could

trail

a

ship indefinitely, hover a

safe distance from

their mark, and strike

at

will.

Finally,

neither

darkness

nor

smoke

screens

were

any

bar to

their

ultromc

vision.

The

spheres,

which

had

penetrated and

explored Lo-Tan in

their

search for me,

had floated through

breaches

in

the

walls and roofs

made

by their

advance

torpedoes.

Wilma

had

just finished

explaining

all

this

to

me

when

I

heard

a

noise outside my. door. With a

whis-

pered

warning

I flung myself back on the couch and

simulated unconsciousness.

When

I

did

not

answer

the poundings and

calls

to open, a

police

detail broke

in

and shook me

roughly.

The

air ball,

I moaned,

pretending

to

regain

con-

way to one

of the

breaches

in

the

wall, nor

to t

she mused.

'No,

they

are

too well

guarded,

I replied,

if you

made a

new

one at a

predetermined

afraid

the repair

men and

the patrol

would

ahead

of me.

Yes,

and

they

would

beam

you

before

y

climb inside

of a.swooper,

she added.

I'll

tell

you

what

I

can do,

Wilma,

I sugg

know

my way about

the

city pretty

well.

I

go

down one of the

shafts

to

the

base of the m

I think

I

can

get

out.

It is dark in

the

valle

Hans

cannot

see me,

and I will „stand

out in

where

your ultroscopes

can pick

me up.

swooper

can drop

quickly down

and get me.

Good

Wilma

said.

But

take

that

H

integrator

pistol

with

you. And

go

right

awa

But wrap

this

ball

in something and

carry it

Just

toss it from

you if

you

are

attacked. I

the control

board

and

operate it

in

case of eme

So

I

picked

up

ball

and

pistol,

and

thrust

in

which

I held it into

the loose

Han

blous

wrapped

the

ball

in

a piece

of

sheeting,

and

st

in

the corridor,

hurrying

toward

the nearest

THE AIKLORDS

OF

HAN



determined

course, and

my own

automatically

was clos-

ing

up

the

gap

to the car ahead.

The

passenger in this

one

wore

the

uniform

of

a

medical officer, but

he

did

not

turn around before

I

swung

out

of main traffic

to

the

little

station

at

the head

of

the shaft.

This

particular

shaft was intended

to

serve

the

very

lowest levels

exclusively,

and since

its single car

car-

ried nothing but

express

traffic,

it was used only by

repair

men

and

other specialists who occasionally

had

to

descend to

those levels.

THERE

were

only three

people

on

the

little plat-

form,

which

reminded

me much of

the subway sta-

tions

of the

Twentieth

Century.

Two men

and

a

girl

stood

facing the gate of the

shaft,

waiting

for

the

car

to return from below. One

of

these

was a

soldier,

apparently off

duty,

for

though

he wore

the

scarlet

military

coat he

carried

no

weapons other than

his

knife.

The other man wore

nothing but

sandals and a

pair

of loose short pants of some

heavy

and serviceable

material.

I

did not

need

to look

at the

compact tool

kit

and

the

ray machines

attached

to

his heavy belt,

nor

the

gorgeously

jewelled

armlet

and diadem

that

he

wore

to

know

him

for a

repair

man.

The

girl

was

quite

scantily

clad, but wore a

mask,

which

was not

unusual

among the Han

women when

taining the

air

ball, which

I

had

placed at

shot

diagonally

upward,

catching

the

fello

middle

of

his

leap,

hurling

him

back

against

t

gate of

the elevator shaft, and pinning his life

there.

*

An

instant

the girl

gazed

in speechless

horro

had been her

secret

lover,

then

she

threw h

my

feet, writhing and shrieking

in terror.

At

this

moment the elevator

shot

to

a sud

behind

the

grill,

and*prepared for

the

worst,

it,

disintegrator

pistol

raised.

But

I lowered

the

pistol

at

once, with a

relief.

The

elevator

was empty.

For a m

considered.

I dared not leave

either

of

thes

nor the girl behind in descending

the shaft.

moment

other passengers might

glide

out of t

to take the

elevator, and give

an

alarm.

So

I

played

the

beam

of the pistol

for

a

on the two dead bodies.

They

vanished,

of cou

nothingness, as did

part of the station platfor

damage

to

the platform,

however, would

not ne

be

interpreted

as

evidence

of a prisoner

escapi

Then

I

threw open

the

elevator

gate,

draggi

Lan into the car

and

stifling her hysterical

pressed the button

that caused it to shoot

do

In a

few

moments

I stepped

out

several thous

1130

AMAZING STORIES



descent- beams

of

countless

disintegrator

ray

batteries

on

surrounding

mountain peaks

played

continuously

and nervously, criss-crossing

in the

sky

above it.

Then

with

a

swish,

a

line dropped

out

of

the sky,

and a

little

seat rested on the ground beside

me.

I

climbed

into

it,

and

without

further

ado

was

whisked

np into the

swooper

that

floated

a

few

hundred

feet

above

me.

A

half an

hour later.

I

was deposited

in

a

Tittle

forest

glade where the headquarters

of the Wyoming Gang

were located,

and was

greeted with

a

frantic disregard

for decorum

by

the Deputy

Boss

of the Wyomings,

who rushed upon me like

a

whirlwind, laughing, crying

and whispering

endearments

all

in

the

same

breath,

while I squeezed her, Wilma,

my wife, until

at

last

she gasped for

mercy.

CHAPTER

XIV

The

Destruction

of

Lo-Tan

T

TOW

did

you

know

I had been

taken

to Lo-Tan

|

—

I

as a

prisoner? I asked

the

little

group

of

JL

M.

Wyoming

Bosses

who

had

assembled in

Wilma's

tent to

greet

me.

And how does it happen

that

our gang is

away

out

here

in the

Rocky Moun-

tains?

I

had

expected,

after

the

fall

of

Nu-Yok,

that

As

a

matter

of

fact,

the destruction

of

the

sented

no

real problem to us at all.

Explo

balls

could

be sent against any target under

that

could not he

better

were their operato

within

them,

and

with

no risk to the

operators

.a

ball

was

exploded

on

its

target

by

the

ope

destroyed

by

accident, he

simply reported

th

the

supply division, and

a

fresh

cue was p

the

jump-off,

tuned

to his controis.

To

my

own

Gang, die

Wyomings, the

Coun

gated

the

.destruction

of

the

escape tunnels

enemy.

We had

a

comfortably

located

ca

wooded canyon, some hundred

and

thirty mil

east

of

the

city,

with about

500

men, most

o

were

bayonet-gunners,

350 girls as long-gun

control-board

operators,

91 control boards

a

250 five-foot, inertron

protected air

balls,

of w

were of

the

explosive

variety.

I

ordered

all

control boards

manned, taking

One

myself, and instructed

the

others

to fo

lead

in

single

file,

at

the

minimum interval

o

with

their projectiles

set

for

signal

rather

tha

detonation.

In my mind

I

paid humble tribute

to the

of

our engineers

as

I

gently twisted

the

lever

my

projectile

vertically

into the air

from

the

THE

AIRLOKDS

OF

HAN

back

and forth through

the

walls of the

city, hunting

and suppressed

disorder with

the

threat of

theirs



for a

spot

from which

I

might

get my bearings. At

last, after many

penetrations, I managed to bring in

a

view of the head of the shaft

at

the bottom of which I

knew the

tunnels

were located,

and

saw

that

we

were

none

too

soon,

for

all the corridors leading toward

this

shaft were

packed

with

Hans waiting their

turn

to

descend.

SLOWLY

I let my

eye

retreat

down one of these

corridors

until

I

pulled

it out through

the

outer

wall-

of

the

city. There

I

held

the

spot on

the

crossed

hairlines and ordered Number Two

Operator to

my

control board, where

I pointed

out

to

her the exact

spot

where

I desired

a

breach

in the wall.

Returning

to

her

own

board,

she

withdrew

her

ball

from

the

string, and focussing

on

this

spot

in the wall,

eased

her projectile

into contact

with

it and detonated.

The

atomic

force

of the explosion

shattered

a vast

section

of the

wall,

and for the moment

I

feared

I had

balked

my own game

by

not having provided

a

less

powerful

projectile.

After

some

fumbling, however,

I

was

able

to

maneuver

my ball through

a gap in the

debris and find

the corridor I

was

seeking.

Down

this corridor

I

sent

it

at the

speed of

a

Twentieth

Century

bullet,

(that is

to

say,

at

about. half speed)

to spare myself

tie

sight

of

the slaughter as it cut

a swath down

the closely packed

and the

occasional

flourish of

a ray pistol.

As

I

floated

my

ball

out into

the

middle

of

th

ficial cavern

I

could

see

them

stagger

back

in

Again

the blinding

flashes

of

a few ray pistol

instantaneous

borings

of the

rays

into

the

walls.

red

coats nearest

the

escape

tunnels

fled

down

t

panic.

Those

whose escape

I blocked

dropped

weapons and

shrank

back against

the smooth

descent

green

walls.

I marshalled

the

rest of

my string

carefully i

cavern,

and

counted the

tunnel

entrances,

slowly

ing my

eye around

the

semicircle

of them.

were

26 corridors

diverging

to

the

north

and

we

decided

to send three

balls down

each,

leave 12

cavern,

then

detonate

them

all

at

once.

Assigning

my

operators

to

their corridors,

I

o

intervals

of five

miles between

them,

and taki

lead

down the first

corridor,

I ordered

go.

Soon my

ball overtook

the

stream

of

fug

smashing

them down

despite'

ray

pistols

and

rockets

that

were

shot against

it.

On and

on

I

it, time

and

again

battering

it through

detachmen

fleeing

Hans,

while

the

distance

register

on

my

climbed

to ten, twenty,

fifty miles.

Then

I

called

a halt,

and

suspended

my

pr

orders.

I had had

no

idea

that

the

Hans

had

these

tunnels

for such

distances

under

the surface


I



structures

o[

curving

lines

and

of indescribable

Ijeauty.

Word bad reached

us

now

of the

destruction

of the

city

itself,

so that no necessity existed for destroying

the

escape tunnels.

In

consequence. I

ordered

the two

operators, who

were

following me,

to

send their balls

out into this underground city,

seeking

the

shaft

which

the

Hans

were

sure to have

as

a secret exit

to the

sur-

face

of

the

earth

above.

But at this juncture events

of

transcending im-

portance interrupted my plans for

a

thorough explora-

tion of these

new

subterranean cities of the Hans. I

detonated my

projectile

at once

and

ordered ail of

the

operators to do

so, and

to tune

in

instantly on

new

ones.

That

we

wrecked most

of these

new

cities'

now

know,

but of course

at

the time

we were in

the

dark

as

to

how

much

damage we

caused, since our

view-

plates naturally went

dead

when we detonated

our

projectiles.

CHAPTER

XV

The

Counter-Attack

THE

news which caused

me

to change

my

plans

was grave enough. As

I

have

explained, the

American lines lay roughly

to the east

and

the

south

of the

city in the

mountains.

My own

Gang

held

the

northern flank

of the east

line.

To

the

south

of us

branches

of

the

giant

trees, and gave them

a ge

around mobility, the

enemy

could

not hope to

We

had the advantage

too,

in

our

ultronoph

scopes, in a field of energy which

the Hans

c

penetrate,

while we could

cut

in

on

their

elec

(as I would

have

called

it

in the

Twentieth

radio

broadcasts.

Later reports showed

that

there

were no

10.000 Hans

in the

force

to our

north, which

was

equipped

with

a portable

power broadca

ficient

for

communication

purposes

and the loc

tion

of small

scoutships, painted

a

green whi

them

difficult

to

distinguish

against the mount

forest

backgrounds.

These

ships

just

skimmed

face

of

the

terrain,

hardly ever

outlining

th

against

the sky. Moreover,

the

Han

commander

had refrained

from

massing their

forces.

T

deployed

over a very

wide

and

deep front,

units, well

scattered, which

were driving

d

parallel valleys

and

canyons

like spearheads

communications

were

working

well

too,

for

o

reported

their

advance

as

well

restrained,

a

taining

a perfect front

as

between

valley an

with

a secondary

line

of heavy batteries,

m

small airships

from

peak

to

peak', following

a

ridges

somewhat

behind

THE

AIRLORDS

OF

HAN



messages,

began to emit such ear-splitting squeals

and

howls that he

shut it

off.

Our

heterodyne

or radio-

scrambling

broadcast had

gone into operation, emit-

ting impulses

of

constantly

varying

wavelength over

the

full

broadcast range and heterodyning

the

Han

communications

into

futility.

In

a

little

while

our scouts came

leaping

down

the

valley from the

north,

and

our air balls

now were

hov-

ering

above

the

Han

lines,

operators

at

the control

boards near-by

painstakingly

picking

up the

pictures

of

the Han squads struggling down the valleys with their

comparatively

clumsy

weapons.

As fast as

the

air-ball scopes picked out these squads,

their

operators, each

of whom

was in ultronophone

communication with

a girl

long-gunner

at some

spot

in our

line, would

inform her

of the location of the

enemy

unit,

and

the

latter, after

a bit

of

mathematical

calculation,

would

send

a rocket

into'

the

air which

would

come roaring

down on, or very near that unit,

-

and

wipe

it

out.

But for all of that, the

number

of the Han squads

was

too much for us.

And

for every squad

we de-

stroyed,

fifty

others

continued

their

advance.

And though

the

lines

were still

several

miles apart,

in most

places, and in

some cases

with

mountain

ridges

intervening,

the Han fire

control began

to

sense the

their tiny but powerful

bombs

everywhere

as

the

At

the same instant

I

ordered

the girls

to

cease

shooting, and lay their barrages down

in the

with their long-guns set for

maximum

automa

vance, and

to

feed

the

reservoirs

as fast as p

while

the

bayonet-gunners

leaped

along

close

this barrage.

Then, with

a Twentieth Century urge

to s

my

own eyes rather

than

through

a

viewplate,

take part

in

the

action,

I turned

command

Wilma and leaped

away, fifty feet a jump, up t

ley,

toward

the distant

flashes

and roiling thu

CHAPTER

XVI

Victory

I

HAD

gone

five

miles, and

had paused

for

ment, half

way

up

the

slope

of the valley

my

bearings,

when a figure

came

hurtling t

the air from behind,

and

landed

lightly

at m

It

was Wilma,

I

put

Bill Hearn in command and followed

I

won't

let

you

go

into

that alone.

If

you

die

too.

Now

don't argue, dear.

I'm determined.

So

together

we

leaped

northward again tow

battle. And

after

a

bit

we

pulled up

close

beh

1134

AMAZING STORIES



and leaped

forward

into the fight,

launching

myself

at

a red-coated

officer

who

was

just

stepping

out

of

a

worm hole.

Like

a shriek

of the

Valkyrie, Wilma's

battle cry

rang

in my

ear

as

she,

too, shot

herself

like a

rocket

at

a red-coated

figure.

I

thrust with

every

ounce

of

my

strength. The

Han

officer, grinning wickedly

as he

tried

to

raise the muzzle

of his pistol,

threw

himself

backward as my bayonet

ripped the

air under

his nose.

But

his grin

turned

instantly to sickened surprise

as the

up-cleaving

ax-

blade

on

the butt

of

my weapon

caught

him

in the

groin,

half bisecting

him.

And

from

the corner of

my

eye

I

saw

Wilma

bury

her bayonet in her opponent, screaming

in ecstatic

joy.

And

so,

in

a

matter

of seconds, we

found

ourselves

in

the front

rank,

thrusting,

cutting,

dodging,

leaping

along

behind

that blinding

and deafening

barrage

in

a

veritable

whirlwind of fury,

until

it seemed

to

me

that

we

were

exulting

in

a consciousness

of excelling

even

that

tide of destruction in our merciless

efficiency.

At last

we

became aware,

in

but a vague sort of way

at

first,

that

no more red-coats were

rising

up

out

of

the

ground

to

go

down again before our whirling,

swinging weapons. Gradually we paused, looking

about

in

wonder. Then the barrage

ceased, and

the

sudden

And

so

the fall of

Lo-Tan

was accomplishe

where

in the seething

activities

of those few

Lan,

the Heaven Born

Emperor

of

the

America, perished, for

he

was heard

of nev

and

the

unified action

of the Hans

vanished

though

it

was

several

years before

one

by

remaining cities were

destroyed

and their po

hunted down, thus

completing

the reclamation

ica

and inaugurating the most glorious

and

nob

scientific

civilization

in the

history of

the

AS

I

look

back

on

those

emotional

and viol

from

my

present

vantage

point of

decl

istence

tn

an

age of peace

and good

will t

mankind, they

do

seem savage and repellent:

Then

there

flashes

into

my

memory

the

p

Wilma

(now

long

since

gone to her rest) as

ing

in

an

utter

abandon of merciless fury, s

herself

recklessly, exultantly

into

the thick of

relentless

slaughter

;

and

my

mind

can

find not

age nor

repellent

about

her.

If

I,

product of

the

relatively

peaceful

T

Century, was so completely carried

away by

of

that

war,

intensified

by centuries of

un

cruelty

on

the

part of

the

yellow men who

w

J 136

AMAZING STORIES



from

a

genus of

human-like

creatures

that

may

have

arrived

on

this

earth

with

a

small planet (or large

meteor)

which is

known to

have

crashed in interior

Asia

late in the

Twentieth Century,

causing certain

permanent

changes in the

earth's

orhit

and

climate.

Geological

convulsions

blocked

this section

off

from

the

rest

of the world for

many

years. And it is a

historical fact

that Chinese scientists, driving their ex-

plorations into it

at.

a

somewhat

later

period, met the

first wave of the

on-coming Hans.

The

theory

is that tliese creatures

(and

certain queer

skeletons

have been found

in the Asiatic

Bowl ) with

a mental

superdevelopment,

hut a vacuum

in

place

of

that

intangible something

we

call a soul, mated

forcibly

with the Tibetans,

thereby

strengthening

their

physical

structure to almost the

human normal,

adapting them-

selves to

earthly speech and

habits,

and in some strange

manner intensifying

even

further

their

mental powers.

Or,

to

put it the

other way around. These Tibetans,

through

the

injection

of this

unearthly blood,

deteri-

orated

slighlly

physically,

lost

the

soul parts

of

their

nature

entirely,

and developed

abnormally

efficient in-

tellects.

However,

through

the centuries that

followed,

as

the Hans spread over the

face of the earth,

earthly

strain

in them

not

only

became

more

di

lost

its potency; and

in the end, the

poison

of

merged the power of

it, and

earth's mankin

again into

possession

of its inheritance.

How

all this

may

he,

I do not know. It i

a hypothesis

over

wluch the learned men of

quarrel.

But I do

know that there was something i

about these Hans. And I

had

many months

mate contact with them, and with their Emp

America. I

can vouch

for

the

fact that

eve

most

friendly and human moments,

there was

manity, or

perhaps

unhumanity

about

h

aroused

in

me

that

urge

to kill.

But

whether or not there was in these

peop

from outside

this planet, the fact remains t

have been

exterminated, that a

truly human

tion

reigns once more—

and

that I am now

a

ve

old man,

waiting

with no

regrets for the call

wh

take

mc

to another

existence.

There, it is my

hope

and

my

conviction

courageous

mate

of those

bloody days

waits

with

loving anus.

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